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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



NEW EVERY MORNING" 



A YEAR BOOK FOR GIRLS 



EDITED BY 



ANNIE H. RYDER 







BOSTON 
D. LOTHROP AND COMPANY 

FRANKLIN AND HAWLEY STREETS 



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Copyright, 1886, 

by 

D. LoTHRor & Company. 



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INTRODUCTION. 



WITHIN the past few years numerous 
books have been written providing spe- 
cial spiritual thought for each day's wants. 
These have lifted the souls of thousands and 
encouraged them to worthier efforts after a 
heavenly nature ; people have come to depend 
upon these works as on scriptural readings ; they 
have opened the day with a thought from them, 
or hallowed its close with a selected portion. 
The books have been indeed Daily Strength for 
Daily Needs, Helps by the Way, and Gold Dust 
from the mines of holiness. And there have 
been calendars, dropping for each day the word 
of inspiration or of wisdom, giving sweet coun- 
sel from the prose and poetry of great authors. 
With what eagerness do we look for what the 
new day will say to us when we tear the old leaf 
away from the month ! 

Realizing how much good these works are 



11 INTRODUCTION. 

doing, and knowing how valuable portions of 
them are to the young, I have thought a little 
volume entirely devoted to girls might be ac- 
ceptable. Out of a sincere love for the girls 
and an earnest desire to help them cheerfully 
along the way of life, I have striven to bring 
together such selections as seemed most practi- 
cal. 

Thoughts have been chosen which offer sug- 
gestions for daily conduct, and which furnish 
hints about such common subjects as talking, 
reading, studying, exercising, caring for health, 
working, dressing, and other necessary acts. 
Duty, particularly in its everyday phases, is en- 
couraged on many a page, while other qualities 
which tend to the growth of character — cheer- 
fulness, perseverance, honesty, courtesy, courage 
and aspiration, have been leading motives in 
compiling the work. 

Here and there a bit of helpful experience 
from some well-known woman's life is held up 
to encourage girls and to increase their rever- 
ence for noble womanhood. 

In choosing from the many helps to girls, 
Nature has been deemed most worthy of consid- 



INTRODUCTION. Ill 

eration among the days of the year. If you love 
her, girls, and daily note some added beauty in 
her charms, you will grow stronger not only in 
body and in mind, but in spirit too. Your love 
for what is pure and for what is beautiful, how- 
ever common, will increase, and your stock of 
happiness will be enlarged by riches which no 
condition in life can impoverish. 

For every seventh day a quotation is given 
bearing directly on spiritual things, though it 
has been the sincere wish of the compiler to 
make such selections for each day as shall lead 
to the fullest development of the soul. 

To those large-hearted men and women who 
have written so helpfully for us, and who allow 
me to bring together in this year-book their 
thoughts, please give your thanks, while I in full 
sincerity add mine. Grow familiar with the 
works these authors have written in your behalf, 
and then be glad again that the world has so 
many good and wise people who love just you 
yourselves. 

If I have too frequently used some thought of 
my own, it has not been because I believed it 
worthy of a place among the thoughts of cele- 



IV INTRODUCTION. 

brated authors, but because I wanted to give 
you, girls, a certain idea, and had not the oppor- 
tunity to search for a better expression of it 
among well-known writers. 

While for every day some passage has been 
taken to give encouragement or hints towards 
earnest living, the general idea which I hope 
pervades the little work, is expressed in the title, 
"New Every Morning," and more fully given in 
the opening poem. With the dawn of each day 
we are born anew into opportunities for fresh 
efforts. No matter about yesterday's shortcom- 
ings, " To-day is ours." Make of it a day holy 
with duty done, and strong with cheerful striv- 
ings ; a clay full of hope for the future. 

My heartiest thanks are clue to those authors 
who have so generously allowed me the use of 
their works, and to the publishers, Messrs. 
Houghton, Mifflin and Co., and Messrs. Roberts 
Brothers, whose permission to select passages 
from their publications has been of great value. 

Annie H. Ryder. 

August, 1886. 



JANUARY. 



NEW EVERY MORNING. 

Every day is a fresh beginning, 

Every morn is the world made new. 
You who are weary of sorrow and sinning, 

Here is a beautiful hope for you : 

A hope for me and a hope for you. 

All the past things are past and over, 
The tasks are done and the tears are shed, 

Yesterday's errors let yesterday cover ; 

Yesterday's wounds, which smarted and bled, 
Are healed with the healing which night has shed. 

Yesterday now is a part of forever : 
Bound up in a sheaf, which God holds tight, 

With glad days, and sad days, and bad days which never 
Shall visit us more with their bloom and their blight, 
Their fullness of sunshine or sorrowful night. 

Let them go, since we cannot relieve them, 

Cannot undo and cannot atone ; 
God in his mercy receive, forgive them ! 

Only the new days are our own. 

To-day is ours, and to-day alone. 

Susan Coolidge. 

XI 



12 JANUARY. 

2. She had reached that point where the girl suddenly 
blooms into a woman, asking something more substantial 
than pleasure to satisfy the new aspirations that are born ; 
a time as precious and important to the after life, as the 
hour when the apple-blossoms fall, and the young fruit 
waits for the elements to ripen or destroy the harvest. 

Louisa M. Alcott. 

There are many boys and girls, full of high hopes, lovely 
possibilities, and earnest plans, pausing a moment before 
they push their little boats from the safe shore. Let those 
who launch them see to it that they have good health to 
man the oars, good education for ballast, and good princi- 
ples as pilots to guide them as they voyage down an ever- 
widening river to the sea. 

Louisa M. Alcott. 



3. There are so many kinds of beauty after which one 
may strive, that we are bewildered by the bare attempt to 
remember them. There is beauty of manner, of utterance, 
of achievement, of reputation, of character, any one of these 
outweighs beauty of person, even in the scales of society, 
to say nothing of celestial values. Cultivate most of the 
kind that lasts the longest. The beautiful face with noth- 
ing back of it lacks the " staying qualities " that are nec- 
essary to those who would be winners in the race of life. 
It is not the first mile post, but the last that tells the story ; 
not the outward bound steed, but the one on the " home 
stretch " that we note as victor. 

Frances E. Willard. 



JANUARY. 13 

4. Girls, have your aspirations, and when you have 
outgrown one, or exhausted all there is good and pure in 
it, take hold of another and grow as large as you can in it. 
If circumstances baffle, why baffle circumstances ; only be 
careful to do all these things cheerfully. That is the nat- 
ural way to grow. The trees get along so, you know. 
They spread out into great space, give as much foliage and 
fruit as they can, and then when other trees crowd around 
too closely, they shoot up and out into the limitless air and 
sunshine. All the while the wind goes sounding through 
them making life musical and bright. A. H. R. 

The true way to begin life is not to look off upon it to 
see what it offers, but to take a good look at self. Find 
out what you are, how you are made up, your capacities 
and lacks, and then determine to get the most out of your- 
self possible. 

Theodore T. Munger. 

5. I am afraid that the majority of girls act very ridicu- 
lously with regard to their health. I should be very sorry 
to make them nervous and fanciful, and lead them to cod- 
dle themselves ; I only want them to act reasonably. If 
they get wet through and do not change their clothes, if 
they go from a heated atmosphere to a cold one without 
additional clothing, if they sit dreaming over the fire, and 
do not take regular exercise, or if they make exercise im- 
possible, by wearing tight stays, or hobbling about on 
high-heeled boots, they can no more expect to be strong 
than they can expect to put their hands into the fire and 
draw them out smooth and sound. 

Phillis Browne. 



14 JANUARY. 

6. Maiden, when such a soul as thine is born, 
The morning stars their ancient music make 
And, joyful, once again their song awake, 
Long silent now with melancholy scorn ; 
And thou, not mindless of so blest a morn, 
By no least deed its harmony shalt break, 

But shalt to that high chime thy footsteps take, 
Through life's most darksome passes unforlorn ; 
Therefore from thy pure faith thou shalt not fall, 
Therefore shalt thou be ever fair and free, 
And in thine every motion musical 
As summer air, majestic as the sea, 
A mystery to those who creep and crawl 
Through Time, and part it from Eternity. 

Lowell. 

7. To live well, you must be in the open air every day. 
This rule is well nigh absolute. Women offend against 
it terribly in America, and women are very apt to break 
down. Rain or shine, mud or dust, go out of your house 
and see what God is doing outside. I do not count that 
an irreverent phrase, which says one feels nearer God un- 
der the open sky, than he is apt to do when shut up in a 
room. I know a very wise man who used to say : " Peo- 
ple speak of going out, when they should speak of going 
in." He meant that you do plunge into the air, as when 
you bathe at the seaside you go into the water. Be quite 
sure of your air bath. I will not dictate the time, but, on 
an average, an hour is not too long. You will fare all the 
better, will eat the better, digest the better, and sleep the 
better, if instead of an hour it is two hours or more. 

Edward Everett Hale. 



JANUARY. 15 

8. Elizabeth Fry, woman-like, aimed at the improve- 
ment of her own sex ; but the reform she inaugurated did 
not stop there ; like a circle caused by the descent of a 
pebble into a lake, it widened and extended until she and 
her work became household words among all classes of 
society, and in all civilized countries. . . Probably it is 
not too much to say that no laborer in the cause of prison 
reform ever won a larger share of success. Certainly 
none ever received a larger meed of reverential love. . 
To those who had sinned against, and had been forgiven 
by her, Mrs. Fry's memory was something almost too 
holy for earth. No saint of the Catholic Church ever 
received truer reverence, or performed such miracles of 
moral healing. Mrs. E. R. Pitman. 

9. I told my Sunday class to-day about putting on " the 
whole armor of God." We talked about the places that 
don't get covered by it. You know the Achilles story and 
the legend about Siegfried ? how Achilles' heel didn't get 
dipped into the fluid which made his body invulnerable, 
and how a leaf rested between Siegfried's shoulders so 
that one tiny spot was not bathed in the liquid which pro- 
tected the rest of him ? You remember one was killed by 
a wound in the heel, and the other by an arrow which 
struck between his shoulders. Now, girls, we haven't been 
dipped all over in the magic fluid of goodness. Lots and 
lots of places are bare. We don't help being wicked in 
hundreds of ways. It's easy not to steal and not to lie, 
but it is not easy to keep from losing patience, and get- 
ting envious, and wanting to have our own way. We have 
just the least armor on. A. H. R. 



1 6 JANUARY. 

io. Be more economical in the use of your mother 
tougue. Apply your terms of praise with precision ; use 
epithets with some degree of judgment and fitness. Do 
not waste your best and highest words upon inferior ob- 
jects, and find that when you have met with something 
which really is superlatively great and good, the terms by 
which you would distinguish it have all been thrown away 
upon inferior things — that you are bankrupt in expression. 
If a thing is simply good, say so ; if pretty, say so ; if very 
pretty, say so ; if fine, say so ; if very fine, say so ; if grand, 
say so; if sublime, say so; if magnificent, say so; if 
splendid, say so. These words all have different mean- 
ings, and you may say them all of as many different ob- 
jects, and not use the word " perfect " once. That is a 
very large word. Timothy Titcomb. 

ii. Not a little sunshine of our Northern winters is 
surely wrapped up in the apple. How pleasing to the 
touch. I love to stroke its polished rondure with my 
hand, to carry it in my pocket on my tramp over the win- 
ter hills, or through the early spring woods. You are com- 
pany, you red-cheeked spitz, or you salmon-fleshed green- 
ing! I toy with you ; press your face to mine, toss you in 
the air, roll you on the ground, see you shine out where 
you lie amid the moss and dry leaves and sticks. You are 
so alive ! You glow like a ruddy flower. You look so 
animated I almost expect to see you move ! I postpone 
the eating of you, you are so beautiful ! How compact; 
how exquisitely tinted! Stained by the sun and varnished 
against the rains. 

John Burroughs. 



JANUARY. 1 7 

12. Some of the girls said, sometimes, that " Leslie 
Goldthwaite liked to be odd ; she took pains to be." This 
was not true ; she began with the prevailing fashion — the 
fundamental idea of it — always, when she had a new 
thing; but she modified and curtailed, — something was 
sure to stop her somewhere ; and the trouble with the new 
fashions is that they never stop. . . . She had other 
work to do, and she must choose the finishing that would 
take the shortest time ; or satin folds would cost six dol- 
lars more, and she wanted the money to use differently ; 
the dress was never the first and the must be. 

Mrs. A. D. T. Whitney. 

She didn't seem to sense anything only ruffles and such 
like. Her mind seemed to be narrowed down and puck- 
ered up, just like trimmin'. Marietta Holley. 

13. For each of us there waits an Orleans. Some time 
that crisis-battle must be fought which gives us final vic- 
tory or ultimate defeat. In that long siege which pre- 
cedes that crisis-battle we need the faith of Joan, that faith 
which ranges the soul on the side of the conquering 
powers, and enlists it in a service which is sure to win. 
And we need to see our visions, to hear our voices, as did 
Joan hers ; those visions which open to us from the sum- 
mits of our holiest resolve, our highest endeavor, our most 
painful abnegation ; those voices which lay on us most 
strenuous commands and whisper to us, in secret cham- 
bers of Our beleaguered souls, words of conviction, of 
courage, and of cheer. God grant that we be not unrespon- 
sive to that angel voice, that we be not disobedient unto 
the heavenly vision ! Rose E. Cleveland. 



1 8 JANUARY. 

14. In character, in manners, in style, in all things, the 
supreme excellence is simplicity. 

Longfellow. 

The old fashion of simplicity is the best for all of us. 

Louisa M. Alcott. 

Charles Lamb was just in his admiration of the shin- 
ing Quakeresses who came up to their Whitsun-confer- 
ences clad in white simplicity, a quality in dress, as in be- 
havior, most becoming. Some of the prettiest faces we see 
may be confined by the linen bands of the Sisters of Mercy 
or by plain Quaker bonnets, still we are to remember that it 
is the soul always and not the simple attire which makes 
faces sweet, and lives beautiful. " Handsome is that 
handsome does." A. H. R. 

15. If there were only a sure and certain receipt for 
making a cheery person, how glad we would all be to try 
it! How thankful we would all be to do good like sun- 
shine ! To cheer everybody up and help everybody along ! 
To have everybody's face brighten the minute we come in 
sight ! Why, it seems to me there cannot be in this life 
any pleasure half so great as this would be. If we looked 
at life only from a selfish point of view, it would be worth 
while to be a cheery person merely because it would be 
such a satisfaction to have everybody be glad to live with 
us, to see us, even to meet us on the street. 

" I jist like to let her in at the door," said an Irish ser- 
vant one day, of a woman I know whose face was always 
cheery and bright ; " the face of her does one good, shure." 

Helen Hunt Jackson. 



JANUARY. 19 

16. " But I do sin, " you say, " again and again, and 
that is what makes me fearful. I try to do better, but 
I fall and I fail all day long. I try not to be covetous 
and worldly, but poverty tempts me, and I fall ; I try 
to keep my temper, but people upset me, and I say 
things of which I am bitterly ashamed the next minute. 
Can God love such a one as me ? " My answer is, If God 
loved the whole world when it was dead in trespasses and 
sins, and not trying to be better, much more will he love 
you who are not dead in trespasses and sins, and are trying 
to be better. If he were not still helping you; if his Spirit 
were not with you, you would care no more to become bet- 
ter than a dog or an ox cares. And if you fall — why, 
arise again. Get up, and go on. You may be sorely 
bruised, and soiled with your fall, but is that any reason 
for lying still, and giving up the struggle cowardly ? In 
the name of Jesus Christ, arise and walk. 

Chas. Kingsley. 

17. I like so much the legend of St. Elizabeth, of Hun- 
gary, who did all for charity's sake — that is, for love's sweet 
sake. — You know that the heavy load of bread which she 
was carrying, trying to conceal it from her husband's eye, 
all turned to roses, red and white, when he commanded 
her to open the pack which she was bringing to the poor. 
Gentle deeds of charity always turn fragrant and beautiful 
in our hands, even when custom, or authority, or fashion, 
or prudence rebukes us for bestowing gifts. You give a 
loaf and you let an angel into your heart. 

A. H. R. 



20 JANUARY. 

1 8. In our comfortable homes, we forget how near 
these wretched cellars and attics are to the reformatories 
and prison cells. They are the next door, and it depends 
often upon our personal influence over the poor to keep 
that door shut. When we are told that certain evils can- 
not be helped, that we may as well let them alone, we 
must remember that experience has taught differently. 
Evils can be helped, and to let things alone is to lend our- 
selves to wrong. It is impossible to overestimate the 
value of friendly communication with the poor and unfor- 
tunate. When I see what is accomplished sometimes by 
what in contrast may be called so small an expenditure, 
it seems impossible not to spread the good news, and thus 
bring in a very much larger number of workers, when the 
harvest is so abundant. " From wealth, little can be 
hoped ; from intercourse, everything." 

How to Help the Poor. — Mrs. James T. Fields. 

19. Have something to do, whether you are rich or 
poor, have some useful employment. And let it be some 
fixed task which you cannot shirk at a moment's notice. 
Carl)le compares the work of this world to an immense 
hand-barrow with innumerable handles, of which there is 
one for every human being. But there are some people, 
he says, so lazy, that they not only let go their handle, 
but jump upon the barrow and increase the weight. Don't 
let go your handle. There is abundance of work in this 
busy world for every one who has a human heart. 

David Pryde. 



JANUARY. 2 1 

20. In the morning, when thou risest unwilingly, let 
this thought be present : " I am rising to the work of a 
human being. Why then am I dissatisfied if I am going 
to do the things for which I exist, and for which I was 
brought into the world ? Or have I been made for this, — 
to lie in the bed-clothes, and keep myself warm ? " 

But this is more pleasant. Dost thou exist, then, to 
take thy pleasure, and not at all for action or exertion ? 
Dost thou not see the little plants, the little birds, the ants, 
the spiders, the bees, working together to put in order 
their several parts of the universe ? 

And art thou unwilling to do the work of a human 
being ? and dost thou not make haste to do that which is 
according to thy nature ? Marcus Antoninus. 

21. O Love is weak 

Which counts the answers and the gains, 
Weighs all the losses and the pains, 
And eagerly each fond word drains 
A joy to seek. 

When Love is strong 
It never tarries to take heed, 
Or know if its return exceed 
Its gift ; in its sweet haste no greed, 

No strife belongs. 

It hardly asks 
If it be loved at all ; to take 
So barren seems, when it can make 
Such bliss, for the beloved sake, 

Of bitter tasks. 

Helen Hunt Jackson. 



22 JANUARY. 

22. " Taste, dear Mrs. Potiphar," said the Pacha, " was 
a thing not known in the days of those kings. Grace was 
entirely supplanted by grotesqueness, and now, instead 
of pure and beautiful Greek forms, we must collect these 
hideous things. If you are going backward to find models, 
why not go as far as the good ones ? My dear madam, an 
or molu Louis Quatorze clock would have given Pericles 
a fit. Your drawing-rooms would have thrown Aspasia 
into hysterics. Things are not beautiful because they cost 
money ; nor is any grouping handsome without harmony. 
Your house is like a woman dressed in Ninon de l'En- 
clos's bodice, with Queen Anne's hooped skirt, who limps 
in Chinese shoes, and wears an Elizabethan ruff round 
her neck, and a Druse's horn on her head. 

George William Curtis. 

23. We are, many of us, in these days wandering far 
and wide in despairing search for some bread of life 
whereby we may sustain our souls, some Holy Grail wherein 
we may drink salvation from doubt and sin. It may be a 
long, long quest ere we find it; but one thing is ready to 
our hands. It is DUTY. Let us turn to that in simple 
fidelity, and labor to act up to our own highest ideal to 
be the very best and purest and truest we know how, and 
to do around us every work of love which our hands and 
hearts may reach. When we have lived and labored like 
this, then, I believe, that the light will come to us, as to 
many another doubting soul ; and it will prove true once 
more that " they who do God's will shall know of his 

doctrine." 

Frances Power Cobbe, 



JANUARY. 23 

24. Raphael and Guido have painted the angel Michael 
with a beautiful maiden's face, though his body is muscu- 
lar, and his wings are tipped with strength, while, firm as 
a Hercules, he stands upon the writhing coils of Satan. 
The Devil but turns his coward head to look with van- 
quished strength upon the clear, calm smile of the angel. 
Maidenly love of what is pure, of what is brave, of what is 
manly, will crush the evil in youths who are tempted ; yes, 
and make from an Adam of mere muscle and intelligence 
a very god of virtue. A. H. R. 

25. The artist was not just then at her easel, but was 
busied with the feminine task of mending a pair of gloves. 
There is something extremely pleasant, and even touch- 
ing, — at least, of very sweet, soft, and winning effect, — 
in this peculiarity of needlework distinguishing women 
from men. . . . Women be they of what earthly rank 
they may, however gifted with intellect or genius, or en- 
dowed with awful beauty — have always some little handi- 
work ready to fill the tiny gap of every vacant moment. 
A needle is familiar to them all. A queen, no doubt, plies 
it on occasion : the woman poet can use it as adroitly as 
her pen ; the woman's eye, that has discovered a new star 
turns from its glory to send the polished little instrument 
gleaming along the hem of her kerchief or to darn a casual 
fray in her dress. . . . Methinks it is a token of 
healthy and gentle characteristics, when women of high 
thoughts and accomplishments love to sew ; especially as 
they are never more at home with their own hearts than 
while so occupied. 

Hawthorne. 



24 JANUARY. 

26. Sweet and thoughtful maiden sitting by my side, 
All the world's before you and the world is wide, 
Hearts are there for winning, hearts are there to 

break, 
Has your own, shy maiden, just begun to wake ? 

Is that rose of dawning glowing on your cheek 
Telling us in blushes what you will not speak? 
Shy and tender maiden, I would fain forego 
All the golden future, just to keep you so. 

Louise C. Moulton. 

27. But how came it that Florence Nightingale devoted 
herself to the profession of nursing ? Simply from a feel- 
ing of love and duty. She need never have devoted her- 
self to so trying and disagreeable an occupation. She was 
an accomplished young lady, possessing abundant means. 
She was happy at home, a general favorite, and the centre 
of an admiring circle. . . . The soldiers blessed her 
as they saw her shadow falling over their pillows at night. 
They did not know her name; they merely called her 
" The Lady of the Lamp." 

Smiles. 

Every tidy, gentle girl who goes into the sick room 
bearing with her, it may be, but a smile or a touch, carries 
a lamp in her hand, which is filled with the oil of blessing. 

A. H. R. 

From henceforth thou shalt learn that there is love 
To long for, pureness to desire, a mount 
Of consecration it were good to scale. 

Jean Ingelow. 



JANUARY. 25 

28. Life consists of two parts — Expression and Re- 
presssion, — each of which has its solemn duties. To love, 
joy, hope, faith, pity, belongs the duty of expression; to 
anger, envy, malice, revenge, and all uncharitableness, 
belongs the duty of repression. Some very religious and 
moral people err by applying expression to both classes 
alike. They repress equally the expression of love and 
of hatred, of pity and of anger. Such forget one great law, 
as true in the moral world as in the physical, — that re- 
pression lessens and deadens. ... A compress on a 
limb will stop its growing; the surgeon knows this, and 
puts a tight bandage around a tumor ; but what if we put 
a tight bandage about the heart and lungs, as some young 
ladies of my acquaintance do, — or bandage the feet, as 
they do in China? And what if we bandage a nobler 
inner faculty, and wrap love in grave-clothes ? 

Harriet Beecher Stowe. 

29. Do not despise your love for the beautiful : cherish 
it, develop it to the last ; steep your whole soul in beauty ; 
watch it in its most vast and complex harmonies, and not 
less in its most faint and fragmentary traces. Learn to 
comprehend, to master, to embody it ; to show it forth to 
men as the sacrament of heaven, the finger-mark of God. 

But more — God has not only made things beautiful ; 
He has made things happy ; whatever misery there may be 
in the world, there is no denying that. However sorrow 
may have come into the world, there is a great deal more 
happiness than misery in it. Misery is the exception ; 
happiness is the rule. 

Chas. Kingsley. 



26 JANUARY. 

30. " My children," Father Le Blanc was saying, " you 
put all your treasures into earthen vessels. Your aspira- 
tions, so noble, soar upward like the branches of the tree, 
but your roots are in the earth that you must certainly 
leave. All your faith which will not take denials ; all 
your hopes which will not be gainsaid ; all your wide-em- 
bracing affections you place in humanity, — in a few frail 
hearts which cannot meet the infinity of your need and of 
your desire. And all these things which must fail you and 
pass away, . . . why will you put them in the place of 
heaven, to which you go to live forever ; in the place of 
God, whose love knows no variableness nor shadow of 
turning ? It is not I who undervalue them ; it is you who 
overestimate them. . . . Love them without sacrific- 
ing yourself to them. Make them the rivers that water 
your life, and also the rivers that bear you to the infinite 
sea into which they shall be merged. A. S. Hardy. 

31. She neither regarded them each and all as wolves 
nor as possible lovers. . . . She was even capable of 
being utterly unconscious of the astounding fact of a tete- 
h-tete with a man. Perhaps the day would come when the 
clear,, steady eyes would droop and the brave mouth would 
tremble in the presence of a man ; but surely not for every 
man must she lose her sweet freedom and fearlessness. 
. . . What will the true king have when he comes to 
his throne, if his golden tribute has been wasted on every 
passer by? And when will the dull world learn that truth 
may look out of the heart of a maiden through loyal, fear- 
less eyes, while false coquetry often drops the lid, and 
sends the shy, conscious flush to the cheek ? 

Blanche Willis Howard. 



FEBRUARY. 

i. The snow levels all things, and infolds them deeper 
in the bosom of nature, as, in the slow summer, vegetation 
creeps up to the entablature of the temple, and the turrets 
of the castle, and helps her to prevail over art. 

A healthy man, indeed, is the complement of the seasons, 
and in winter, summer is in his heart. There is the South. 
Thither have all birds and insects migrated, and around 
the warm springs in his breast are gathered the robin and 
the lark. 

There is a slumbering subterranean fire in nature which 
never goes out, and which no cold can chill. In the cold- 
est day it flows somewhere, and the snow melts around 
every tree. Thoreau. 

2. Who quarrels with dancing ? But then, people must 
dance at their own risk. If Lucy Lamb, by dancing with 
young Boosey when he is tipsy, shows that she has no 
self-respect, how* can I, coolly talking with Mrs. Lamb in 
the corner, and gravely looking on, respect the young lady ? 
Lucy tells me that if she dances with James she must dance 
with John. I cannot deny it, for I am not sufficiently fa- 
miliar with the regulations of the mystery. Only this ; if 
dancing with sober James makes it necessary to dance 
with tipsy John — it seems to me, upon a hasty glance at 
the subject, that a self-respecting Lucy would refrain from 
the dance with James. Why Lucy must dance with every 
man who asks her, whether he is in his senses, or knows 
how to dance, or is agreeable to her or not, is a profound 
mystery to Paul Potiphar. 

George William Curtis. 

27 



28 FEBRUARY. 

3. If all women could realize the power, the might of 
even a small pleasure, how much happier the world would 
be ! and how much longer bodies and souls both would bear 
up under living I Sensitive people realize it to the very 
core of their being. They know that often and often it 
happens to them to be revived, kindled, strengthened, to a 
degree which they could not describe, and which they 
hardly comprehend, by some little thing — some word of 
praise, some token of remembrance, some proof of affec- 
tion or recognition. They know, too, that strength goes 
out of them, just as inexplicably, just as fatally, when for 
a space, perhaps even for a short space, all these are want- 
in S- Helen Hunt Jackson. 

4. The Girl of the Period, sauntering before one down 
Broadway, is one panorama of awful surprises from top to 
toe. Her clothes characterize her. She never character- 
izes her clothes. . . . She has not one of the attributes 
of nature nor of proper art. She neither soothes the eye 
like a flower, nor pleases it like a picture. She wearies it 
like a kaleidoscope. She is a meaningless dazzle of broken 
effects. Surely it is one of the requisitions of a tasteful 
garb that the expression of effort to please shall be want- 
ing in it; that the mysteries of the toilet shall not be 
suggested by it ; that the steps to its completion shall be 
knocked away like the sculptor's ladder from the statue, 
and the mental force expended upon it be swept away out 
of sight like chips on the studio floor. 

Elizabeth Stuart Phelps. 



FEBRUARY. 29 

5. " One day, when I was a very little girl, I was watch- 
ing my mother make strawberry preserves. Beside the 
stove stood a large milk pan containing some squash for 
company pies. ■ Now, Bridget,' said my mother, ' at last 
it is done ; take the kettle off.' This was accomplished 
and then, with almost incredible stupidity, the ' help ' ac- 
tually emptied the strawberries into the squash ! My 
mother turned her head just too late. She was quick and 
impulsive, but, there escaped from her mouth only a des- 
pairing ' Oh, Bridget ! ' Then as she saw the girl's regretful 
face, she uttered no angry reproaches. No doubt, when 
my tired mother went up-stairs to rest, she felt disheartened, 
and thought that her preserves and squash, her time and 
labor, had all been wasted ; but probably she never did for 
me a more valuable morning's work than when she gave 
me that unconscious lesson in sweet self control." 

" Mothers in Council." 

6. I must confess, however, that rage and hatred boiled 
within me, but I wrestled with these evil spirits till I could 
say to myself: " No, the wicked shall not so far trouble 
me as to poison my heart. No, I will do all the good I can 
to those who falsely call themselves Christians and fol- 
lowers of the religion of love. One thing certainly I cannot 
do, I cannot love my enemies, and I know no one who 
can; nay, I believe the saying was never meant in that 
sense, only, as it is written afterwards : I can and I must 
do good to those who have injured me. . . . We can- 
not force ourselves to love our enemy, but we can force 
ourselves to help him and to do good to him. This I must 
do — I can and I will." Auerb ach. 



30 FEBRUARY. 

7. Ever since spinning was a type of womanly industry, 
from age to age and nation to nation, it has been expected 
that beautiful apparel should clothe women. From the 
classic robes of an Aspasia to the rich dresses cf Elizabeth, 
and thence to the wedding gown of Puritan Priscilla, we 
see the value and attractiveness of dress. But there are 
some costumes I cannot abide, can you ? Have you never 
seen girls whose dresses looked like books with the begin- 
ning and ending gone, which reminded you of u antiques 
and horribles" or of what musicians call medleys — "Lis- 
ten to the Mocking Bird," " Nearer my God to Thee," 
"Hail Columbia," all in a whirl ? What is the matter? 
Lack of harmony. A. H. R. 

8. Yet in herself she dwelleth not, 

Although no home were half so fair ; 
No simplest duty is forgot ; 
Life hath no dim and lowly spot 

That doth not in her sunshine share. 

She doeth little kindnesses 

Which most leave undone, or despise ; 

For nought that sets one heart at ease, 

And giveth happiness or peace, 
Is low-esteemed in her eyes. 

She hath no scorn of common things, 
And, though she seem of other birth, 

Round us her heart entwines and clings, 

And patiently she folds her wings 
To tread the humble paths of earth. 

Lowell. 



FEBRUARY. 3 1 

9. When people wish to say — not how great a distance 
they have to go in order to reach a certain place, but how 
far it really is straight from point to point — they say it is 
so far, as the crow flies. Xow, Polly, suppose you try to 
do all you have to do " as the crow flies." Don't be like 
the robin, which flew down, and then up again, and then 
stopped, and considered, and fluttered about; but go on 
patiently and steadily, " as the crow flies." 

Jean Ingelow. 
We do nothing heartily and happily that we do not do 
honestly, with a single eye and perfect self-reliance. 

Sumner Ellis. 

10. She looked real. Her bright hair was gathered up 
loosely, with some graceful turn that showed its fine shin- 
ing strands had all been freshly dressed and handled; 
. . . it was not packed and stuffed and matted and put 
on like a pad or bolster, from the bump of benevolence, 
all over that and everything else gentle and beautiful, down 
to the bend of her neck; and her dress suggested always 
some one simple idea which you could trace through it, in 
its harmony, at a glance; not complex and bewildering 
and fatiguing with its many parts and folds and festoonings 
and the garnishings of every one of these. She looked 
more as young women used to look before it took a lady 
with her dressmaker seven toilsome days to achieve a 
" short street suit," and the public promenades became the 
problems that they now are to the inquiring minds that 
are forced to wonder who stops at home and does up all 
the sewing, and where the hair all comes from. 

Mrs. A. D. T. Whitney. 



32 FEBRUARY. 

ii. Quite the ugliest face I ever saw was that of a 
woman whom the world calls beautiful. Through its " sil- 
ver veil " the evil and ungentle passions looked out hideous 
and hateful. On the other hand, there are faces which the 
multitude at the first glance pronounce homely, unattract- 
ive, and such as " Nature fashions by the gross," which I 
always recognize with a warm heart-thrill ; not for the 
world would I have one feature changed ; they please me 
as they are ; they are hallowed by kind memories; they 
are beautiful through their associations ; nor are they any 
the less welcome that with my admiration of them "the 
stranger intermeddleth not." Whittier. 

12. Nothing comes amiss in the great business of prep- 
aration, if it has been thoroughly well learned. And the 
strangest things come of use, too, at the strangest times. 
A sailor teaches you to tie a knot when you are on a fishing 
party, and you tie that knot the next time when you are 
patching up the Emperor of Russia's carriage for him, in 
a valley in the Ural Mountains. But " getting ready " does 
not mean the piling in of a heap of accidental accomplish- 
ments. It means sedulously examining the coming duty or 
pleasure, imagining it even in its details, decreeing the ut- 
most punctuality so far as you are concerned, and thus 
entering upon them as a knight armed from head to foot. 
Edward Everett Hale. 

Keep steadily before you the fact that all true success 
depends at last upon yourself, — trite to weariness, I 
acknowledge, but one of those eternal truths to be kept 
before us as we heed gravitation and appetite. The tritest 
is always the truest. Theodore T. Munger. 



FEBRUARY. 33 

13. I cannot think but God must know 
About the thing I long for so ; 

I know He is so good, so kind, 
I cannot think but He will find 
Some way to help, some way to show 
Me to the thing I long for so. 

I stretch my hand — it lies so near : 
It looks so sweet, it looks so dear. 
" Dear Lord," I pray, " Oh let me know 
If it is wrong to want it so ? " 
He only smiles, — He does not speak ; 
My heart grows weaker and more weak, 
With looking at the thing so dear, 
Which lies so far, and yet so near. 

Now, Lord, I leave at Thy loved feet 
This thing which looks so near, so sweet ; 
I will not seek, I will not long, — 
I almost fear I have been wrong. 
I'll go, and work the harder, Lord, 
And wait till by some loud, clear word 
Thou callest me to Thy loved feet, 
To take this thing so dear, so sweet. 

Saxe Holm. 

14. I have read and well I believe it, that a friend is in 
prosperity a pleasure, in adversity a solace, in grief a com- 
fort, in joy a merry companion, at all times another 7, in 
all places the express image of mine own person ; insomuch 
that I cannot tell whether the immortal gods have bestowed 
any gift upon mortal men, either more noble or more nec- 
essary than friendship. Lyly's " Euphues." 



34 FEBRUARY. 

15. That she had faults we need not deny. But as an 
example of one who, gifted with great powers, aspired only 
to their noblest uses ; who, able to rule, sought rather to 
counsel and to help, — she deserves a place in the highest 
niche of her country's affection. As a woman who believed 
in women, her word is still an evangel of hope and inspira- 
tion to her sex. Her heart belonged to all God's creatures, 
and most to what is noblest in them. Gray-headed men of 
to-day, the happy companions of her youth, grow young 
again when they speak of her. One of these still recalls 
her as the greatest soul he ever knew. Such a word, 
spoken with the weight of ripe wisdom, may fitly indicate 
to posterity the honor and reverence which belong to the 
memory of Margaret Fuller. 

Julia Ward Howe. 

16. There is never a " Might-have-been " that touches 
with a sting, but reveals also to us an inner glimpse of the 
wide and beautiful " May-be." It is all there; somebody 
else has it now, while we wait. 

Mrs. A. D. T. Whitney. 

We know not, verily, that which is laid up for us. There 
are such beautiful things put by. In God's house and in 
God's time, there are such treasures. 

Mrs. A. D. T. Whitney. 

Hope unlocks the temple doors. Despair rusts the 
keys. Each must know her own anxieties best ; but the 
trials of all, we shall sometime see, are but bitter on the 
outside, sweet and nourishing within. Believe in the some- 
time. A. H. R. 



FEBRUARY. 35 

17. What makes the " best society "of men and women ? 
The noblest specimens of each, of course. The men who 
mould the time, who refresh our faith in heroism and vir- 
tue. . . The women, whose beaut)*, and sweetness, and 
dignity, and high accomplishment, and grace, make us 
understand the Greek mythology, and weaken our desire 
to have some glimpse of the most famous women of his- 
tory. The " best society " is that in which the virtues are 
the most shining, which is the most charitable, forgiving, 
long-suffering, modest, and innocent. The " best society " 
is, by its very name, that in which there is the least hypoc- 
risy and insincerity of all kinds, which recoils from, and 
blasts, artificiality, which is anxious to be all that it is pos- 
sible to be, and which sternly reprobates all shallow 
pretence, all coxcombery and foppery and insists upon 
simplicity as the infallible characteristic of true worth. 
That is the " best society " which comprises the best men 
and women. George William Curtis. 



18. " You are seeking your own will, my daughter. 
You are seeking some good other than the law you are 
bound to obey. But how will you find good ? It is not a 
thing of choice : it is a river that flows from the foot of 
the Invisible Throne, and flows by the path of obedience. 
I say again, man cannot choose his duties. You may 
choose to forsake your duties, and choose not to have the 
sorrow they bring. But you will go forth ; and what will 
you find, my daughter? Sorrow without duty — bitter 
herbs, and no bread with them. George Eliot. 



36 FEBRUARY. 

19. . . . The Mahomets, the Carlyles, the George 
Eliots, need their Cadijahs, but not so much, I would say, 
as do the people with whom we come in contact every day, 
in common ways and common places. ... I deem it 
true that deeper than the craving for health, or wealth, or 
love, is the craving for recognition, the deep desire to be 
known for what we truly are ; to hear from some human 
lips our rightful name ... to hear this name, that at 
last we may answer to it, and find and keep our undisputed 
place. If you miss health, miss wealth, lose or lack love, 
may you not miss the gift from another of divining faith in 
you ; this faith which is, as is all faith, the gift of God. 
The name of every Cadijah is also Theodora. 

Rose E. Cleveland. 

20. Live for something. Do good and leave behind 
you a monument of virtue that the storm of time can never 
destroy. Write your name in kindness, love, and mercy on 
the hearts of thousands you come in contact with, year by 
year: you will never be forgotten - . . your name, 
your deeds, will be as legible on the hearts you leave be- 
hind as the stars on the brow of evening. Good deeds 
will shine as the stars of heaven. Chalmers. 

There is nothing — no, nothing — innocent or good that 
dies and is forgotten ; let us hold to that faith or none. 
An infant, a prattling child, dying in the cradle will live 
again in the better thoughts of those that loved it, and play 
its part through them in redeeming actions of the world, 
though its body be burnt to ashes, or drowned in the deep 
sea. Dickens. 



FEBRUARY. 37 

21. Whatever it be that keeps the finer faculties of the 
mind awake, wonder alive, and the interest above mere 
eating and drinking, money-making and money-saving ; 
whatever it be that gives gladness, or sorrow, or hope, — 
this, be it violin, pencil, pen, or, highest of all, the love of 
woman, is simply a divine gift of holy influence for the 
salvation of that being to whom it comes, for the lifting 
of him out of the mire and upon the rock. For it keeps 
a way open for the entrance of deeper, holier, grander in- 
fluences emanating from the same riches of the Godhead. 

George Macdonald. 

22. Pamela, who that day having wearied her selfe with 
reading . . . was working upon a purse certaine roses 
and lillies. . . . The flowers shee had wrought caried 
such life in them, that the cunn ingest painter might have 
learned of her needle : which, with so pretty a manner, 
made his careers to & fro through the cloth, as if the 
needle itselfe would haue been loth to haue gone from ward 
such a mistresse, but that it hoped to returne thitherward 
very quickly againe ; the clothe looking with many eyes 
vpon her, and louingly embracing the wounds she gaue it ; 
the sheares also were at hand to behead the silke that was 
growne too short. And if at any time shee put her mouth 
to bite it off, it seemed, that where she had beene long in 
making of a rose with her hands, she would in an instant 
make roses with her lips; as the lillies seemed to haue 
their whitenesse rather of the hand that made them, than 
of the matter whereof they were made ; & that they grew 
there by the suns of her eyes, and were refreshed by the 
most . . . comfortable ayre, which an unawares sigh 
might bestow upon them. Philip Sidney. 



$8 FEBRUARY. 

23. Be but faithful, that is all. 

Go right on, and close behind thee, 
There shall follow still and find thee, 
Help, sure help ! 

Arthur Hugh Clough. 

When Douglas was carrying the heart of Bruce in the 
silver case, to bury it in the Holy Land, he was attacked 
by a body of Turks, and finding the result somewhat 
doubtful he took the silver case and flung it among the 
ranks of the enemy, saying, " O brave heart of Bruce ! go 
foward as you have ever done, and I will follow." Take 
the beating heart of Christ and throw it among your tempt- 
ations, and follow where that leads, by its divine impulses, 
by its eternal recognition of that which alone is right, and 
good and true. Ciiapin. 

24. Expression is the loftiest and the final charm in 
every human face. While it is right, indeed a heavenly 
intuition, to desire beauty, and while attention to the laws 
of hygiene, good taste, and good behavior mightily con- 
duce to it, heavenly thoughts are the only sure rceipe for 
a countenance of heavenly expression. St. Cecilia heard 
the music of the upper courts, and hence her face mirrors 
its ethereal loveliness. It is not only true that prayer will 
cause a man to cease from sinning, even as sin will cause a 
man to cease from prayer, but it is also true that no heart 
can be lifted up toward God as a lily lifts its chalice to the 
sun, without the face beaming with a light which never 
shone on sea or shore, but which reflects the shekinah of 
the upper sanctuary. Frances E. Willard. 



FEBRUARY. 39 

25. The tendency to persevere, to persist in spite of 
hindrances, discouragements, and impossibilities — it is 
this that in all things distinguishes the strong soul from the 
weak. Carlyle. 

Xear the close of the Middle Ages there lived in Spain 
a girl whose persistent efforts after reforms in the Catho- 
lic religion, and whose endeavors after a pure and conse- 
crated life, made people call her in after-times " Saint 
Theresa." So noble was her devotion to truth, so perse- 
vering her endeavor for charity's sake, that even her 
bodily infirmities and her poverty had to succumb to her 
iofty purposes. When founding the Carmelite Convent 
of Toledo, she was taunted with the harsh fact that she 
had only four ducats to begin her work of mercy. But she 
replied to the reproach by saving, " Theresa and this money 
are indeed nothing ; but God and Theresa and four ducats 
can accomplish anything." A. H. R. 

26. The want of occupation is no less the plague of 
society than of solitude. Rousseau. 

You just take hold of something and try. You'll find 
there's always a working alongside. Put up your sails and 
the wind will fill 'em. Mrs. A. D. T. Whitney. 

Absorbing occupation was with Mme. de Stael, as it is 
with all energetic minds, a necessary condition of content- 
ment and of mental health. " I see," she says, " that 
time divided is never long, and that regularity abridges all 
things." Abel Stevens. 



40 FEBRUARY. 

27. But our school-girl is largely occupied with becom- 
ing " a young lady." She may lose sight of her intention 
by and by, when she enters Lassell, or Wellesley, or Vas- 
sar ; but at present, especially if she be a village girl, she 
does not know even the joyous restful weariness of a long 
vigorous walk, much less would she run. . . . Very 
likely treasures of flowers, rare plants, minerals, birds, and 
beautiful landscape views, illustrating the sciences and 
literature she is industriously studying in-doors, lie all 
about her, among the hills and woods, within walking dis- 
tance. But she is none the richer. She and a friend, arm 
in arm, frequently " promenade ; " she stands about in 
groups, she returns calls, she goes shopping, she wears 
high French heels, and wears them, too, as nearly as may 
be, under her insteps. She has been known to visit the 
chiropodist. Mary J. Safford. M. D. 

28. If you are to see clearly all your life, you must not 
sacrifice eyesight by over-straining it ; and the same law 
of moderation is the condition of preserving every other 
faculty. I want you to know the exquisite taste of common 
dry bread; to enjoy the perfume of a larch wood at a dis- 
tance ; to feel delight when a sea-wave dashes over you. 
I want your eye to be so sensitive that it shall discern the 
faintest tones of a gray cloud, and yet so strong that it 
shall bear to gaze on a white one in the dazzling glory of 
sunshine. I would have your hearing sharp enough to de- 
tect the music of the spheres, if it were but audible, and 
yet your nervous system robust enough to endure the 
shock of the guns on an ironclad. To have and keep 
these powers, we need a firmness of self-government that 
is rare. IJamerton. 



MARCH. 

1. Ah ! March ! we know thou art 
Kind-hearted, spite of ugly looks and threats, 
And, out of sight, art nursing violets. 

Helen Hunt Jackson. 

Nearer and ever nearer 

Drawing with every day ! 
But a little longer to wait and watch 
'Neath skies so cold and gray ; 

And hushed is the roar of the bitter north 

Before the might of the spring, 
And up the frozen slope of the world 

Climbs Summer, triumphing. 

Celia Thaxter. 

2. If books cost in proportion to their grade or value, 
or if the higher levels of composition and creation were, of 
necessity, so written that they could be understood only by 
severe application, like that of learning a foreign language, 
or the higher mathematics, how would society be affected 
with a fresh and worthy sense of the privilege of books 
and reading ! If only the aristocracy of wealth could buy 
Dante and the Waverley Novels, and the literature of the 
age of Elizabeth, or could read of Copernicus, or Her- 
schelPs astromony, or could own the Prophets and the 
four Gospels ! 

No, — we do not say the empire of letters, the kingdom 
of letters, the aristocracy or oligarchy of letters, but the 
republic of letters. T. Starr King. 

4* 



42 MARCH. 

3. I know the Miss Osbornes were excellent critics of 
a cashmere shawl, or a pink satin slip ; and when Miss 
Turner had hers dyed purple, and made into a spencer ; 
and when Miss Pickford had her ermine tippet twisted 
into a muff and trimmings, I warrant you the changes did 
not escape the two intelligent young women before men- 
tioned. But there are things, look you, of a finer texture 
than fur or satin, and all Solomon's glories, and all the 
wardrobe of the Queen of Sheba; — things whereof the 
beauty escapes the eye of many connoisseurs. And there 
are sweet modest little souls on which you light, fragrant 
and blooming tenderly in quiet shady places ; and there 
are garden-ornaments, as big as brass warming-pans, that 
are fit to stare the sun itself out of countenance. 

Thackeray. 

4. In very truth, Mary Marston was already immeasur- 
ably more of a lady than Hesper Mortimer was ever likely 
to be in this world. What was the stateliness and pride 
of the one compared to the fact that the other would have 
died in the work-house or on the street rather than let a 
man she did not love embrace her. — To be a martyr to a 
lie is but false ladyhood. There was nothing striking 
about her; she made no such sharp impression on the 
mind as compelled one to think of her again ; yet always, 
when one had been long enough in her company to feel 
the charm of her individuality, the very quiet of any quiet 
moment was enough to bring back the sweetness of Mary's 
twilight presence. For this girl, who spent her days be- 
hind a counter, was one of the spiritual forces at work for 
the conservation and recovery of the universe. 

George Macdonald. 



MARCH. 43 

5. I should have a small book-case, just one shelf, and 
on it I should arrange the biographies of those women 
who represent the best lives in all positions and callings. 
I should select not perfect women — they cannot be found 
— but I should choose such as have been ideally brave, 
faithful, industrious and true to the duty which lay closest 
to them. I should want them to represent what woman 
has done in religion, literature, science, art, history, as well 
as in domestic industries, in philanthropy and in the home. 
But, mind you, girls, I should not always prefer the lives 
of those women about whose feet the world has cast the 
most crowns. A. H. R. 

That which is ideally beautiful or strong in men and 
women imparts courage to us who learn about them ; but 
there are brave and gentle lives, surrounded by debasing 
circumstances, which the world only too rarely exhalts. 

A. H. R. 

6. Patience and struggle. An earnest use of what we 
have now, and, all the time, an earnest discontent until 
we come to what we ought to be. Are not these what we 
need ? What, in their rich union, we could not get, except 
in just such a life as this with its delayed completions ? 
Jesus does not blame Peter when he impetuously begs that 
he may follow Him now. He bids him wait and he shall 
follow Him some day. But we can see that the value of 
his waiting lies in the certainty that he shall follow, and 
the value of his following, when it comes, will lie in the 
fact that he has waited. So, if we take all Christ's culture, 
we are sure that our life on earth may get already the 
inspiration of the heaven for which we are training, and 
our life in heaven may keep forever the blessing of the 
earth in which we were trained. Phillips Brooks. 



44 MARCH. 

7. She looks through life, and with a balance just 
Weighs men and things, beholding as they are 

The lives of others : in the common dust 
She finds the fragments of the ruined star : 

Proud, with a pride all feminine and sweet, 
Xo path can soil the whiteness of her feet. 

The steady candor of her gentle eyes, 
Strikes dead deceit, laughs vanity away; 

She hath no room for petty jealousies, 

Where Faith and Love divide their tender sway. 

Of either sex she owns the nobler part : 

Man's honest brow and woman's faithful heart. 

Bayard Taylor. 

S. " They are in God's hands," answered Falconer. 
" He hasn't done with them yet. Shall it take less time 
to make a woman than to make a world ? Is not the 
woman the greater ? She may have her ages of chaos, 
her centuries of crawling slime, yet rise a woman at last." 

" It always comes back upon me, as if I had never known 
it before, that women like some of those were of the first 
to understand our Lord." George Macdonald. 

Xot to the shorn lamb alone, always are sharp winds 
beneficently tempered. There is mercy, also, to the mis- 
erable wolf. Mrs. A. D. T. Whitney. 

What's done we partly may compute, 
But know not what's resisted. Burns. 

Vet to the worst despair that comes through sin 

God's light shall reach at last. 

Celia Thaxter. 



MARCH. 45 

9. " I have had no exact system with my niece Rosa- 
mund. Perhaps I have erred in this. But I should be 
grieved to see her losing unconsciousness and fearlessness. 
She has never learned to be afraid. I should be pained 
if she should begin to think much about evil, even for the 
purpose of avoiding it. I have always had the idea, that, 
although I myself, as a girl, was far from a headstrong, 
impetuous, brilliant character, had anyone said to me, 
' Young girl, here is a pleasant garden, where you may 
play, and here is a great, mysterious wall, with something 
highly interesting beyond, which you must not see or think 
about — making daisy-chains would have palled upon me 
at last ; and, though I might not have actually ventured 
on the forbidden ground, I am very sure I should at least 
have found a ladder, climbed up, and peeped over the wall 
to my heart's content." Blanche Willis Howard. 

10. Work, then, girls ! Work for pleasure, work for 
profit ! Work for the health of your bodies, and the 
health of your souls ! " You will find that the mere re- 
solve not to be useless, and the honest desire to help other 
people, will, in the quickest and most delicate ways, 
improve yourselves." . . . " When men are rightly 
occupied their amusement grows out of their work, as the 
color petals out of a fruitful flower ; when they are faith- 
fully helpful and compassionate, all their emotions become 
steady, deep, perpetual, and vivifying to the soul as the 
natural pulse to the body." 

To these great truths of Ruskin add these bits of warn- 
ing : whatever your work is, be not impatient for great 
results. Go slowly, remembering the necessity for thor- 
oughness and for bringing your strongest action to bear 
upon the important points. A. H. R. 



46 MARCH. 

11. There is such an expression used as "society man- 
ners." Alice and Phebe Cary had no manner for society 
more charming in the slightest particular, than they had 
for each other. No pun ever came into Phebe's head too 
bright to be flashed over Alice, and Alice had no gentle- 
ness for strangers which she withheld from Phebe. The 
perfect gentlewomen which they were in the parlor, they 
were always, under every circumstance. There was not a 
servant in the house, who, in his or her place, was not 
treated with as absolute a politeness as a guest in the par- 
lor. This spirit of perfect breeding penetrated every word 
and act of the household. What Alice and Phebe Cary 
were in their drawing-room, they were always in the abso- 
lute privacy of their lives. Each obeyed one inflexible 
law. Mary Clemmer. 

12. To sleep well is one of your duties. Do not culti- 
vate, do not permit, any of the sentimental nonsense which 
speaks as if sleep were a matter of chance, or were out of 
your control. You must sleep well, if you mean to do the 
rest well. You must have body and mind in good working 
order ; and they will not be in good working order, unless, 
you sleep regularly, steadily, and enough. Do not place 
any confidence in the old laws which limit the amount of 
sleep. There are such old lines as " six hours sleep for a 
maid, and seven hours sleep for a man." Take all you 
need. . . . The rule is correlative to the rule for work. 
Thomas Drew stated it thus : " You have no right in any 
day to incur more fatigue than the sleep of the next night 

will recover from." 

Edward Everett Hale. 



MARCH. 47 

13. The old, old story; yet I kneel 

To tell it at Thy call ; 
And cares grow lighter as I feel 

My Father knows them all. 
Yes, all ! The morning and the night, 

The joy, the grief, the loss, 
The roughened path, the sunbeam bright, 

The hourly thorn and cross. 

And He has loved me ! All my heart 

With answering love is stirred ; 
And every anguished pain and smart 

Finds healing in the word. 
So here I lay me down to rest, 

As nightly shadows fall, 
And lean, confiding, on His breast, 

Who knows and pities all ! Anon. 

14. At sixteen or eighteen, or perhaps at twenty, a girl 
can toss a jaunty little felt hat upon her head, pin it in a 
twinkling above her wayward hair, tie on a bit of blue or 
red somewhere about her blouse, brush her short walking- 
skirt into becoming folds, tie up her tennis shoes, and there 
she is in five minutes, prettier, fresher, more becomingly 
dressed than all the older women of the household, who 
have been standing before the mirror trying this effect and 
that for the last hour. Ask a girl how she does it, how 
she manages to make her hat bend down and up, and in 
and out, in all kinds of alluring ways, and she does not 
know, — it belongs to girls to do such things. Of course 
it does ! A. H. R. 



48 MARCH. 

15. Leslie was different, in some things, from the little 
world of girls about her. . . . She was like a bit of 
fresh, springing, delicate vine in a bouquet of bright simi- 
larly beautiful flowers ; taking little free curves and reaches 
of her own, just as she had grown ; not tied, nor placed, 
nor constrained ; never the central or most brilliant thing ; 
but somehow a kind of life and grace that helped and 
touched and perfected all. 

There was something very real and individual about 
her; she was no "girl of the period," made up by the 
fashion of the day. She would have grown just as a rose 
or a violet would, the same in the first quarter of the cen- 
tury or the third. They called her " grandmotherly " 
sometimes, when a certain quaint primitiveness that was 
in her showed itself. And yet she was the youngest girl 
in all that set, as to simpleness and freshness and unpre- 
tendingness, though she was in her twentieth year now, 
which sounds — so very old ! Adelaide Marchbanks used 
to say of her that she " stayed fifteen." 

Mrs. A. D. T. Whitney. 

16. So I am content to tell my simple story, without 
trying to make things seem better than they were ; dread- 
ing nothing, indeed, but falsity, which, in spite of one's 
best efforts, there is reason to dread. Falsehood is so 
easy, truth so difficult. Examine your words well, and 
you will find that even when you have no motive to be 
false, it is a very hard thing to say the exact truth, even 
about your own immediate feelings, — much harder than 
to say something fine about them which is not the exact 
truth. George Eliot. 



MARCH. 49 

17. Great men and great causes have always some 
helper of whom the outside world knows but little. Some- 
times these helpers have been men, sometimes they have 
been -women, who have given themselves to help and 
strengthen those called upon to be leaders and workers, in- 
spiring them with courage, keeping faith in their own idea 
alive, in days of darkness. Of this noble company of 
unknown helpers Caroline Hersche! was one. She stood 
beside her brother, William Herschel, sharing his labors, 
helping his life. . . She became his assistant in the 
workshop ; she helped him to grind and polish his mir- 
rors ; she stood beside his telescope in the nights of mid- 
winter, to write down his observations, when the very ink 
was frozen. She kept him alive by her care ; thinking 
nothing of herself, she lived for him. She loved him, be- 
lieved in him, and helped him, with all her heart and with 
all her strength. Mrs< j ohn Herschel. 

18. It was a lovely day. The sun shone so warm that 
you could not help thinking of what he would be able to 
do before long — draw primroses and buttercups out of 
the earth by force of sweet persuasive influences. But in 
the shadows lay fine webs and laces of ice, so delicately 
lovely that one could not but be glad of the cold that made 
the water able to please itself by taking such graceful 
forms. And I wondered over again for the hundredth 
time, what could be the principle which, in the wildest, 
most lawless, fantastically chaotic, apparently capricious 
work of nature, always kept it beautiful. The beauty of 
holiness must be at the heart of it somehow, I thought. 

George Macdonald. 



50 MARCH. 

19. "I do not object to plain, pure sugar candies, if 
eaten as a dessert now and then," said I, much to their 
surprise. " The flavoring and coloring are often mis- 
chievous. Keep that in mind. Still I rather you would 
give candies the go-by along with the peppers and limes, 
and get your positive sweets and sours from fruits. Let 
an orange before breakfast be your only between-meal in- 
dulgence. When once you have gained an appetite for 
healthy foods, the idea of food between meals will be 
actually repugnant to you. And don't you know that your 
stomach is bound to take hold of food and try to digest it 
just as soon and just as often as any is offered it? You 
will feel very different then from head to foot when your 
stomach is allowed its rightful and regular rests. This 
precaution alone will help you to a good appetite in time." 

Mary J. Safford, M. D. 

20. You may be poor ; you may lead lives of struggle ; 
your occupations may run counter to many of the natural 
delights of youth ; you may see no relief, no outlook to a 
tedious and dull routine. Well, bear it all, and bate no 
jot of heart or hope ; for, in spite of it all, you need never 
fail. 

Be good and do good, and you will have won something 
better than a fortune or a coronet. To do this may not 
save you from abuse, or opposition, or earthly loss ; but if 
this and a thousand other calamities come upon you, you 
will be at the promontory, at whose base the tide-waves 
break in vain. Look, I say, at the cross of Christ, and 
study all that it means, and you will understand the mean- 
ing of your life. Canon Farrar. 



MARCH. 51 

21. Small courtesies sweeten life; the greater ennoble 
xt - Bovee. 

Courtesy in the mistress of a house consists in feeding 
conversation, never in usurping it. She is the guardian of 
this species of sacred fire, but it must be accessible to all. 

Mme. Swetchine. 

The innocent and kindly little arts that make some peo- 
ple as useful and beloved as good fairy god-mothers were 
once upon a time. Louisa M. Alcott. 

Fuller says, that " William, Earl of Nassau, won a sub- 
ject from the King of Spain, every time he put off his hat. 

Emerson. 

22. " Girls are such enthusiasts ! " Of course they are, 
my friend. That's what I like in them — enthusiasm. 
The sad thing is that it oozes out when they become women. 

" Yes, and they always solemnly determine they will do 
something grand, and then down they come, everyone of 
'em to the commonplace ! " Well, housekeeping, a mother's 
cares, teaching, spinning, writing may be common enough, 
but I do not like to have the best things — the most nec- 
essary — called commonplace. It makes them seem triv- 
ial. So, I say, girls, carry your enthusiasm into every one 
of them, no matter if you never rise to distinction. 

A. H. R. 

Nothing is so contagious as enthusiasm ; it is the real 
allegory of the tale of Orpheus — it moves stones, it 
charms brutes. Enthusiasm is the genius of sincerity, 
and truth accomplishes no victories without it. 

Bulwer. 



52 MARCH. 

23. Books give to all who will faithfully use them, the 
society and the presence of the best and greatest of our 
race. No matter how poor I am ; no matter though the 
prosperous of my own time will not enter my obscure 
dwelling, if learned men and poets will enter and take up 
their abode under my roof, — if Milton will cross my 
threshold and sing to me of Paradise ; and Shakespeare 
open to me the world of imagination and the workings of 
the human heart; and Franklin enrich me with his practi- 
cal wisdom, — I shall not pine for want of intellectual 
companionship, and I may become a cultivated man, though 
excluded from what is called the best society in the place 
where I live. Nothing can supply the place of books. 

Channing, 

24. " To look up and not down ; 
To look forward and not back ; 
To look out and not in ; 

And 
To lend a hand." 

Edward Everett Hale. 
You never miss an opportunity of giving innocent pleas- 
ure, or helping another soul on the path to God, but you 
are taking away from yourselves forever what might have 
been a happy memory, and leaving in its place pain or 
remorse. Prances Power Cob be. 

Every individual has a place in the world, and is im- 
portant in some respect, whether he chooses to be so or 
not. Hawthorne. 

Everybody has a way of living ; if you can get into it, 
everyone is as good as a story. 

Mrs. A. D. T. Whitney. 



MARCH. 53 

25. I confess that the evening talk over the dessert at 
dinner is much more entertaining and piquant than the 
morning paper, and often as important. There is no en- 
tertainment so full of quiet pleasure as the hearing a lady 
of culture and refinement relate her day's experience in her 
daily round of calls, charitable visits, shopping, errands of 
relief and condolence. I don't mean gossip, by any means, 
or scandal. A woman of culture skims over that like a 
bird, never touching it with the tip of a wing. What she 
brings home is the freshness and brightness of life. She 
touches everything so daintily, she hits off a character in 
a sentence, she gives the pith of a dialogue without tedious- 
ness, she mimics without vulgarity ; her narration sparkles 
but it doesn't sting. The picture of her day is full of vi- 
vacity, and it gives new value and freshness to common 
things. Charles Dudley Warner. 

26. " A commonplace life " we say and we sigh, 

Yet why should we sigh as we say ? 
The commonplace sun in the commonplace sky 

Makes up the commonplace day. 
The moon and the stars are commonplace things, 
And the flower that blooms and the bird that sings, 
Yet dark were the world and sad our lot, 
If the flower failed, or the sun shone not ; 
And God who studies each separate soul, 
Out of commonplace lives makes his beautiful 

whole. Susan Coolidge. 

Nor knowest thou what argument 
Thy life to thy neighbor's creed has lent. 
All are needed by each one ; 
Nothing is fair or °;ood alone. Emerson. 



54 MARCH. 

27. Reverence the highest, have patience with the low- 
est. Let this day's performance of the meanest duty be 
thy religion. Are the stars too distant, pick up the pebble 
that lies at thy feet, and from it learn the all. 

Margaret Fuller Ossoli. 

Let us do our duty in our shop or our kitchen, the mar- 
ket, the street, the office, the school, the home, just as 
faithfully as if we stood in the first rank of some great 
battle, and we knew that victory for mankind depended 
upon our bravery, strength and skill. 

Theodore Parker. 

Faithfulness in little things fits one for heroism when 
the great trials come. Louisa M. Alcott. 

28. If you want to know people you must get near 
them ; first get down to their level, and then bring them 
up to yours, not waiting for any great occasion, or a more 
direct revelation, but taking advantage of small opportu- 
nities, and making your influence felt in quiet, unobtrusive 
ways. 

There is always some one to smile at, somebody to give 
your chair to, somebody to whom a book, a flower, or even 
an old paper, will be a boon. These small attentions will 
open the way to confidence, will make it possible that in 
need these friends will give you opportunities to help them 
which, unless you had shown thoughtfulness and regard 
for them, they could never have done. A quiet, sympa- 
thetic look or smile many a time unbars a heart that needs 
help which you can give. Josephine Pollard. 



MARCH. 55 

29. Ask the labourer in the field, at the forge, or in the 
mine ; ask the patient, delicate-fingered artisan, or the 
strong-armed, fiery-hearted worker in bronze, and in mar> 
ble, and with the colours of light ; and none of these, who 
are true workmen, will ever tell you, that they have found 
the law of heaven an unkind one — that in the sweat of 
their face they should eat bread, till they return to the 
ground ; nor that they ever found it an unrewarded obe- 
dience, if, indeed, it was rendered faithfully to the com- 
mand — " Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do — do it with 
thy might." Ruskix. 

30. Every considerate word we utter concerning those 
about us ; every time we give them the benefit of a doubt 
in our judgment of their motive ; every time we take occa- 
sion to couple with our demurrer from their position some 
saving clause of appreciation, we are habituating ourselves 
to that charity which " suffereth long and is kind." 

Just as you now play a piece without the music and do 
not think what notes you strike, though once you picked 
them out by slow and patient toil, so if you begin of set 
purpose, you will learn the law of kindness in utterance so 
perfectly, that it will be second nature to you, and make 
more music in your life than all the songs the sweetest 
voice has ever sung. Frances E. Willard. 

If a good face is a letter of recommendation, a good 
heart is a letter of credit. B ul wer. 

Keep thyself simple, good, pure, kind, and affectionate. 

Make thyself all simplicity. 

Marcus Aurelius. 



56 MARCH. 

31. Why does the moaning of the storm give me pleas- 
ure ? Methinks because it puts to rout the trivialness of 
our fair-weather life, and gives it, at least, a tragic interest. 
The sound has the effect of a pleasing challenge to call 
forth our energy to resist the invaders of our life's territory. 
It is as musical and thrilling as the sound of an enemy's 
bugle. Our spirits revive like lichens in a storm. There 
is something worth living for when we are resisted, threat- 
ened. . . . If it were not for physical cold how should 
we have discovered the warmth of the affections ? I some- 
times feel that I need to sit in a far-away cave through a 
three weeks' storm, cold and wet, to give a tone to my 
system. The spring has its windy March to usher it in, 
with many soaking rains reaching into April. 

Thoreau. 



APRIL. 

1. " Oh, keep me innocent ; make others great ! " 
Those words were written by Queen Caroline Matilda of 
Denmark, with a diamond, on her window in the castle of 
Freudsborg ; and, could we but live in that spirit, many a 
one might be saved from such bitter disappointment as 
makes men well-nigh wish that the)' had never been born. 
The jewel of innocence is more than a crown. 

Canon Farrar. 

<; My children, beware of popularity ; it is a delusion and 
a snare ; it puffeth up the heart of man, and especially of 
woman ; it blindeth the eyes to faults ; it exalteth unduly 
the humble powers of the victim ; it is apt to be capri- 
cious ; and just as one gets to liking the taste of this intox- 
icating draught, it suddenly faileth, and one is left gasping 
like a fish out of water/' Louisa M. Alcott. 

2. Yes, I believe in ideals. Some of us will owe our suc- 
cess, our worth to them. I would not have Joan of Arc's 
life-story changed in the least, and I hope historians will 
never become so critical as to erase her name from the 
books as they have William Tell's. But I believe this, 
too, that, among our friends, ideals which grow upon us 
are far sweeter and more helpful than those recommended 
by a first glance. I believe that a girl ought to pass 
quickly through a state of infatuation, blind adoration of a 
mortal, that she ought to allow some chance for faults, and 
some room for loving others too, then she will save herself 
from future disgust and make raillery against the friend- 
ships of girls cease. A. H. R. 

57 



58 APRIL. 

3. It comes far easier to scold our friend in an angry 
moment than to say how much we love, honor, and esteem 
him in a kindly mood. Wrath and bitterness speak them- 
selves and go with their own force ; love is shamefaced, 
looks shyly out of the window, lingers long at the door 
latch. 

I hate is said loud and with all our force. I love is said 
with a hesitating voice and blushing cheek. 

In an angry mood we do an injury to a loving heart 
with good, strong, free emphasis ; but we stammer and 
hang back when our diviner nature tells us to confess and 
ask pardon. Even when our heart is broken with repent- 
ance, we haggle and linger long before we can 
Throw away the worser part. 

Harriet Beecher Stowe. 

4. Her air, her smile, her motions, told 

Of womanly completeness ; 
A music as of household songs 
Was in her voice of sweetness. 

Not beautiful in curve and line, 

But something more and better, 
The secret charm eluding art, 

Its spirit, not its letter ; — 

An inborn grace that nothing lacked 

Of culture or appliance, — « 

The warmth of genial courtesy, 

The calm of self-reliance. 

Whittier. 



APRIL. 59 

5. It's good to put a bother away over night. It all 
straightens out in the morning. 

Mrs. A. D. T. Whitney. 
The best thing to take people out of their own worries 
is to go to work and find out how other folks' worries are 
getting on. Mrs. A. D. T. Whitney. 

It will all come out somehow. It has got to, you know. 
Things always do, they can't stay up in arms. 

Mrs. A. D. T. Whitney. 
Look on other lives beside your own ; see what their 
troubles are, and how they are borne. 

George Eliot. 

6. One cowslip, though it shows the yellow, is not 
fairly out, but will be by to-morrow. How they improve 
their time. Not a moment of sunshine is lost. One thing 
I may depend on, there has been no idling with the flowers. 
Nature loses not a moment, takes no vacation. They 
advance as steadily as a clock. These plants now protected 
by the water, are just peeping forth. I should not be sur- 
prised to find that they drew in their heads in a frosty 
night. Thoreau. 

The year's at the spring, 
And day's at the morn; 
Morning's at seven ; 
The hill-side's dew-pearled ; 
The lark's on the wing ; 
The snail's on the thorn ; 
God's in His heaven — 
All's right with the world. 

Robert Browning. 



60 APRIL. 

7. It is just as bad, when you are talking to another 
girl, or another girl's mother, if you take to watching her 
hair, or the way she trimmed her frock, instead of watching 
what she is saying as if that were really what you and she 
are talking for. I could name to you young women who 
seem to go into society for the purpose of studying the 
milliner's business. It is a very good business, and a very 
proper business to study in the right place. I know some 
very good girls who would be much improved, and whose 
husbands would be a great deal happier, if they would 
study it to more purpose than they do. But do not study 
it while you are talking. No, — not if the Empress Eu- 
genie herself should be talking to you. 

Edward Everett Hale. 

8. If Christ had to be made perfect by sufferings, much 
more must we. If he needed to learn obedience by sorrow, 
much more must wc. If he needed, in the days of his 
flesh, to make supplication to God his Father with strong 
crying and tears, so do we. And if he was heard in that 
he feared, so I trust, we shall be heard likewise. If he 
needed to taste even the most horrible misery of all ; to 
feel for a moment that God had forsaken him ; surely we 
must expect, if we are to be made like him, to have to 
drink at least one drop out of his bitter cup. It is very 
wonderful : but yet it is full of hope and comfort, to be 
able, in our darkest and bitterest sorrow, to look up to 
heaven and say, " At least there is one who has been 
through all this." Charles Kingsley. 

Sorrow is often misquoted. It is only one step in a 
long journey, one stage in a long growth, a. S. Hardy. 



APRIL. 6 1 

9. " And the three Marys brought precious spices to 
anoint our Lord. Take good heed now, my dear sisters ; 
these three Marys denote three bitternesses, as the name 
signifieth. The first bitterness is remorse and making 
amends for sin, and this is the first Mary, Mary Magdalene, 
for she in great bitterness of heart left off her sins and 
turned to our Lord. The second bitterness is in wrestling 
and struggling against temptation, and this is that other 
Mary, the mother of Jacob, which meaneth wrestling. 
This wrestling is very bitter to many who are well ad- 
vanced in the way to heaven, for they still waver in tempt- 
ation. And the third bitterness consists in longing for 
heaven and weariness of this world, when one is of such 
piety that his heart is at rest with the war of vice, and is 
as it were in the gates of heaven, where all worldly things 
seem bitter to him. And this bitterness is to be under- 
stood by the third Mary, Mary Salome, which signifieth 
peace." A. S. Hardy. 

10. Soeur Marie bent her head over her book as she 
read. All her thoughts were there. " But now observe 
here, my dear sisters, how after bitterness cometh sweet- 
ness. Bitterness buyeth it, for, as the Gospel saith, these 
three Marys brought sweet-smelling spices to anoint our 
Lord. By spices, which are sweet, is to be understood 
the sweetness of a devout heart. These three Marys buy 
it, that is, through bitterness we arrive at sweetness. So 
saith God's dear spouse, I will go to the hill of frankin- 
cense by the mountain of myrrh. Observe : which is the 
way to the sweetness of frankincense ? By the myrrh of 
bitterness." A. S. Hardy. 



62 APRIL. 

ii. The best sort of bravery, — the courage to do right. 

Louisa M. Alcott. 
Far away there in the sunshine are my highest aspira- 
tions. I cannot reach them, but I can look up and see 
their beauty, believe in them, and try to follow where they 
lead. Louisa M. Alcott. 

O power to do ! O baffled will ! 

O prayer and action ! ye are one — 
Who may not strive, may yet fulfil 
The harder task of standing still, 

And good but wished with God is clone. 

Whittier. 
And having done all, to stand. 

Stand, therefore. St. Paul. 

12. Oh! Nature is so modest! But once set her talk- 
ing, she will forget your presence, and babble like the 
brook. How much she has told the poets, and the men 
of science ! How much she will tell you, too, if you but 
heed her ! 

Ah, girls, what slight attention we have, in reality, 
shown to Nature ! We treat her more like a servant than 
a friend and companion. The desire for excitement has 
turned our minds to vainer subjects. The struggles which 
our elders have made for money and position have deprived 
them of chances for regarding natural objects. However 
deplorable this may be, it is a still more lamentable fact, 
that you, dear girls, give so little heed to Nature, — you 
who have time and to spare. It lies with you to cultivate 
this love for the natural world, that future generations 
may be more mindful of it. A. H. R. 



APRIL. 63 

13. Beauty of achievement, whether in overcoming a 
hasty temper, a habit of exaggeration, in exploring a con- 
tinent with Stanley, or guiding well the ship of state with 
Gladstone, is always fascinating, and whether known in a 
circle large as the equator or only in the family circle at 
home, those who are in this fashion beautiful are never 
desolate, and some one always loves them. Beauty of 
reputation is a mantle of spotless ermine in which if you 
are but enwrapped you shall receive the homage of those 
about you, as real, as ready, and as spontaneous as any 
ever paid to personal beauty in its most powerful hour. 
Some sort of reputation you must have, whether you will 
or no. In school, in church, at home, and in society, you 
carry ever with you the wings of a good, or the ball and 
chain of a bad reputation. Resolve to make it beautiful, 
clean, shining, gracious. Frances E. "YYillard. 

14. (1.) Read first the one or two great standard 
works in each department of literature. 

( 2. ) Confine, then, your reading to that department 
which suits the particular bent of your minds. 

1. Before you begin to peruse a book, know something 
about the author. 

2. Read the preface carefully. 

3. Take a comprehensive survey of the table of con- 
tents. 

4. Give your whole attention to whatever you read. 

5. Be sure to note the most valuable passages. 

6. Write out, in your own language, a summary of the 
facts you have noted. 

7. Apply the results of your reading to your every-day 
duties. David Pryde. 



64 APRIL. 

15. Observe, only observe ! and curiosity will press for 
you the very secrets out of the woods, the streams, the 
skies. Look around you ! There is such an infinite num- 
ber of objects to consider right about your own porch-door, 
— the lichens on the door-stone, the apple-tree shading 
the path, the striped pebble that you kick aside, the plant 
pressing up between the boards, the dew shimmering on 
the weed. Investigate all your surroundings, especially 
the small, neglected places, and try to have an opinion 
about what you observe. Do not think of yourselves as 
living in rooms and houses, but as living in the house, the 
palace of the earth and sky, whose every gallery, corridor 
and hall, is carpeted with Nature's tapestries of unfading 
color and deep softness ; whose walls are hung with glow- 
ing sunsets ; and whose roof is lighted with windows of 
blue sky. A. H. R. 

16. A habit of mistrust is the torment of some people. 
It taints their love and their friendship. They take up 
small causes of offence. They expect their friends to show 
the same aspect to them at all times, which is more than 
human nature can do. They try experiments to ascertain 
whether they are sufficiently loved ; they watch narrowly 
the effects of absence, and require their friends to prove to 
them that the intimacy is exactly upon the same footing as 
it was before. Some persons acquire these suspicious 
ways from a natural diffidence in themselves. . . With 
others, these habits arise from a selfishness which cannot 
be satisfied. And their endeavors should be to uproot" 

such a disposition, not to soothe it. 

Arthur Helps. 



APRIL. 65 

17. Like a cradle rocking, rocking, 

Silent, peaceful, to and fro, 
Like a mother's sweet looks dropping 

On the little face below, 
Hangs the green earth, swinging, turning, 

Jarless, noiseless, safe, and slow ; 
Falls the light of God's face bending 

Down and watching us below. 

And as feeble babes that suffer, 

Toss, and cry, and will not rest, 
Are the ones the tender mother 

Holds the closest, loves the best,— 
So when we are weak and wretched, 

By our sins weighed down, distressed, 
Then it is that God's great patience 

Holds us closest, loves us best. 

Saxe Holm. 

18. In our whole social intercourse with our fellows — 
in the family, the home, in society, and in all public work 
— the power of any individual to do good must depend al- 
most measure for measure on the extent of that individual's 
power of sympathy, — the wideness and the warmth of his 
heart. The power of thinking, the capacity of his head, is 
but a secondary matter. . . . Never think — you who 
are young and glorying, perhaps, in the grand new fields of 
intellectual culture opened before you — that the intellect 
is nobler than the heart, that knowledge is greater than 
love. Not so ! A thousand times no ! . . . It is here, 
in the faculty of noble, disinterested, unselfish love, that 
lies the true gift and power of our womanhood. 

Frances Power Cob be. 



66 APRIL. 

19. When I see a ruddy, romping school-girl in her first 
long dress, beginning to avoid coasting on her double-run- 
ner, or afraid of the stone walls in the blueberry-fields, or 
standing aloof from the game of base-ball, or turning sadly 
away from the ladder which her brother is climbing to the 
cherry-tree, or lingering for him to assist her over the 
gunwale of a boat ; when I read of the sinking of steamers 
at sea, with " nearly all the women and children onboard," 
and the accompanying comments, " Every effort was made 
to assist the women up the masts and out of danger till 
help arrived, but they could not climb % and we were forced 
to leave them to their fate " — when I consider these things, 
I feel that I have ceased to deal with blunders in dress, 
and have entered the category of crimes. 

Elizabeth Stuart Phelps. 

20. I do not think I exaggerate the importance or the 
charms of pedestrianism, or our need as a people to culti- 
vate the art. I think it would tend to soften the national 
manners, to teach us the meaning of leisure, to acquaint us 
with the charms of the open air, to strengthen and foster 
the tie between the race and the land. . . . The roads 
and paths you have walked along in summer and winter 
weather, the fields and hills which you have looked upon 
in lightness and gladness of heart, when fresh thoughts 
have come into your mind, or some noble prospect has 
opened before you, and especially the quiet ways where 
you have walked in sweet converse with your friend, paus- 
ing under the trees, drinking at the spring — henceforth 
they are not the same ; a new charm is added ; those 
thoughts spring there perennial, your friend walks there 
forever. John Burroughs. 



APRIL. 67 

21. It is only a poor sort of happiness that could ever 
come by caring very much about our own narrow pleasures. 
We can only have the highest happiness, by having wide 
thoughts, and much feeling for the rest of the world as 
well as ourselves ; and this sort of happiness often brings 
so much pain with it, that we can only tell it from pain by 
its being what we would choose before everything else, 
because our souls see it is good. There are so many 
things wrong and difficult in the world, that no man can 
be great unless he gives up thinking much about pleasure 
or rewards, and gets strength to endure what is hard and 
painful. 

And so, my Lillo, if you mean to act nobly and seek to 
know the best things God has put within reach of men, 
you must learn to fix your mind on that end, and not on 
what will happen to you because of it. 

George Eliot. 

22. " Perfectly true, perfectly right," said I. " Every 
word good as gold. Truth before all things ; sincerity 
before all things : pure, clear, diamond-bright sincerity is 
of more value than the gold of Ophir ; the foundation of 
all love must rest here. ... If I once know that my 
wife or my friend will tell me only what she thinks will be 
agreeable to me, then I am at once lost, my way is a path- 
less quicksand. But all this being promised, I still say 
that we Anglo-Saxons might improve our domestic life, if 
we would graft upon the strong stock of its homely sincer- 
ity the courteous graces of the French character." 

Harriet Beecher Stowe. 



68 APRIL. 

23. Girls and boys have too slight an appreciation of 
manual labor. In most ways, work with the hands is more 
necessary than mental labor. God made man work in a 
garden before he gave him power to write books or keep 
accounts. Fine white hands are very pretty when they be- 
long to a lady ; but sunburnt, muscular ones are beautiful 
too, in a vineyard. 

May I warn you not to despise the small amount of work 
you can accomplish, as compared with what others are 
able to do ? Let me remind you, too, that it is not so 
much what we get in money, buildings, knowledge, reputa- 
tion, influence, by means of work, as what labor does for 
ourselves, our characters that is valuable to us. Carlyle 
expressed the idea in a very short sentence, " Not what I 
have, but what I do, is my kingdom." A. H. R. 

24. This intense tenderness, this yearning over every- 
thing human, with a pity and love inexpressible, made the 
very impulse and essence of her being. Surely in this she 
was Christlike. Our Saviour wept over Jerusalem. How 
many tears did she, his disciple, shed for sorrowing human- 
ity, for suffering womanhood. Nor were tears all she 
gave. The deepest longing of her life was to see human 
nature lifted from sin to holiness, from misery to happiness ; 
every thought that she uttered, every deed she did, she 
prayed might help toward this end. To help somebody, 
no matter how lowly, to comfort the afflicted, to lift up the 
fallen, to share every blessing of her life with others, to 
live ( even under the stress of pain and struggle ) a life pure 
large, in itself an inspiration — this, and more, was Alice 
Cary. Mary Clemmer. 



APRIL. 69 

25. Gather a single blade of grass, and examine for a 
moment, quietly, its narrow, sword-shaped strip of fluted 
green. Think of it well, and judge whether, of all the 
gorgeous flowers that beam in summer air, and of all 
strong and goodly trees, pleasant to the eyes or good for 
food, there be any by God more highly graced, by man 
more deeply loved, than that narrow point of feeble green. 
Consider what we owe to the meadow grass, to the cover- 
ing of the ground by that glorious enamel, by the companies 
of those soft and countless and peaceful spears. 

Ruskin. 

26. And now, I will give you one lesson to carry home 
with you — a lesson which if we all could really believe 
and obey, the world would begin to mend from to-morrow, 
and every other good work on earth would prosper and 
multiply tenfold, a hundredfold — ay, beyond all our fair- 
est dreams. And my lesson is this. When you go out 
from this church into the crowded streets, remember there 
is not a soul in them who is not as precious in God's eyes 
as you are ; not a little dirty ragged child whom Jesus, 
were he again on earth, would not take up in his arms and 
bless, not a publican or a harlot with whom, if they but 
asked him, he would not eat and drink. . . . Therefore 
do to all who are in want of your help as Jesus would do 
to them if he were here ; as Jesus is doing to them already ; 
for he is here among us now, and forever seeking and 
saving that which was lost ; and all we have to do is to 
believe that, and work on, sure that he is working at our 
head, and that though we cannot see him, he sees us. 

Charles Kingsley. 



JO APRIL. 

27. Every evening it was a fresh excitement to watch 
the lighting of the lamps, and think how far the lighthouse 
sent its rays, and how many hearts it gladdened with as- 
surance of safety. As I grew older, I was allowed to 
kindle the lamps sometimes myself. That was indeed a 
pleasure. So little a creature as I might do that much 
for the great world ! We waited for the spring with an 
eager longing ; the advent of the growing grass, the birds 
and flowers and insect life, the soft skies and softer winds 
the everlasting beauty of the thousand tender tints that 
clothed the world, — these things brought us unspeakable 
bliss. To the heart of Nature one must needs be drawn 
in such a life; and very soon I learned how richly she 
repays in deep refreshment the reverent love of her wor- 
shipper. Celia Thaxter. 

28. You should be careful not to intrust another unnec- 
essarily with a secret which it may be a hard matter for 
him to keep, and which may expose him to somebody's 
displeasure, when it is hereafter discovered that he was 
the object of your confidence. Your desire for aid, or for 
sympathy, is not to be indulged by dragging other people 
into your misfortunes. 

There is as much responsibility in imparting your own 
secrets, as in keeping those of your neighbor. 

Arthur Helps. 

Avoid having many confidants. Avoid absorbing and 
exclusive friendships. They are not wise ; they are selfish, 
and not of the nature of true friendship. They commonly 
breed trouble, and end in quarrel and heart break. 

Theodore T. Munger. 



APRIL. 71 

29. The foul toad hath a fair stone in his head ; the 
fine gold is found in the filthy earth; the sweet kernel 
lyeth in the hard shell ; virtue is harbored in the heart of 
him that most men esteem misshapen. If we respect more 
the outward shape than the inward habit, into how many 
mischiefs do we fall, into what blindness are we led ! Do 
we not commonly see that in painted pots is hidden the 
deadliest poison, that in the greenest grass is the greatest 
serpent? How frantic are those lovers who are carried 
away with the gay glistening of the fine face, the beauty 
whereof is parched with the summer's blaze, and chipped 
with the winter's blast, which is of so short continuance 
that it fadeth before one perceives it flourisheth. 

Lyly's " Euphues." 

30. Patience, accomplish thy labor; accomplish thy 
work of affection ! 

Sorrow and silence are strong, and patient endurance is 

godlike. 
Therefore accomplish thy labor of love, till the heart is 

made godlike, 
Purified, strengthened, perfected, and rendered more 

worthy of heaven. Longfellow. 



MAY. 

1. The clear pure light of the morning made me long 
for the truth in my heart, which alone could make me pure 
and clear as the morning, tune me up to the concert-pitch 
of the nature around me. And the wind that blew from 
the sunrise made me hope in the God who had first breathed 
into my nostrils the breath of life ; that He would at length 
so fill me with His breath, His mind, His spirit, that I 
should think only His thoughts, and live His life, finding 
therein my own life, only glorified infinitely. 

George Macdonald. 

The face of Nature is the face of God, and must bear 
expressions that can influence, though unconsciously to 
them, the most ignorant and hopeless of His children. 

George Macdonald. 

2. Maiden, that read'st this simple rhyme, 

Enjoy thy youth, it will not stay; 
Enjoy the fragrance of thy prime, 
For oh, it is not always May ! 

Enjoy the Spring of Love and Youth, 
To some good angel leave the rest ; 

For Time will teach thee soon the truth, 
There are no birds in last year's nest ! 

Longfellow. 

God's hand is on thee, O my child ; God's grace 
Go with thee — 

Elizabeth Stuart Phelps. 

72 



MAY. 73 

3. I stand in the sunny noon of life. Objects no longer 
glitter in the dews of morning, neither are yet softened by 
the shadows of evening. Every spot is seen, every chasm 
revealed. Climbing the dusty hill, some fair effigies that 
once stood for human destiny have been broken. Yet 
enough is left to point distinctly to the glories of that destiny. 

Always the soul says to us all, " Cherish your best hopes 
as a faith, and abide by them in action. . . . Such 
shall be the effectual, fervent means to their fulfilment." 

Margaret Fuller. 

4. A woman has a personal work and duty, relating to 
her own home, and a public work and duty, which is also 
the expansion of that. The woman's work for her own 
home is to secure its order, comfort, and loveliness. The 
woman's duty, as a member of the commonwealth, is to as- 
sist in the ordering, in the comforting, and in the beautiful 
adornment of the state. What the woman is to be within 
her gates, as the centre of order, the balm of distress, and 
the mirror of beauty; that she is also to be without her 
gates, where order is more difficult, distress more immi- 
nent, and loveliness more rare. Ruskin. 

O birds through the heaven that soar 
With such tumult of jubilant song ! 

The shadows are flying before 
For the rapture of life is strong. 

And my spirit leaps to the light 
On the wings of its hope new born, 

And I follow your radiant flight 
Through the golden halls of morn ! 

Celta Thaxter. 



74 MAY. 

5. Yon bells in the steeples, ring, ring out your 

changes, 
However so many they be, 
And let the brown meadow-lark's note as he ranges 

Come over, come over to me. 



I wish, and I wish that the spring would go faster, 

Nor long summer bide so late ; 
And I could grow on like the foxglove and aster, 

For some things are ill to wait. 

I wait for the day when dear hearts shall discover, 
While dear hands are laid on my head ; 

" The child is a woman, the book may close over, 
For all the lessons are said." 

I wait for my story — the birds cannot sing it, 
Not one, as he sits on the tree; 

The bells cannot ring it, but long years, O bring it ! 
Such as I wish it to be. Jean Ingelow. 

6. This, then, is the sum of all. Circumstances are not 
in our power ; virtues are. It is not in our power to avert 
the bitter failure which the earth may inflict ; it is in our 
power to win the high success which God bestows. The 
young lions do lack, and suffer hunger ; but they that seek 
the Lord shall want no manner of thing ; certainly, which 
is eternally, infinitely good. Xo man is a failure who is 
faithful and upright; no cause is a failure which is just 
and true. 

There is but one failure ; and that is, not to be true to 
the best one knows. To us and to our race, there is but 
one failure, and that is sin. Canon Farrar. 



MAY. 75 

7. " Nothin' like green grass and woodsy smells to 
right folks up. When I was a gal, if I got riled in my 
temper or low in my mind, I just went out and grubbed in 
the gardin, or made hay, or walked a good piece, and it 
fetched me round beautiful. Never failed ; so I came to 
see that good fresh dirt is fust-rate physic for folks' spirits 
as it is for mounds, as they tell on." 

Louisa M. Alcott. 

Take Nature for your friend and teacher. You love 
and feel near to her already ; you will find her always just 
and genial, patient and wise. Watch the harmonious laws 
that rule her ; imitate her industry, her sweet sanity ; and 
soon I think you will find that this benignant mother will 
take you in her arms and show you God. 

Louisa M. Alcott. 

8. The loom of life turns out many different fabrics. 
Is the beauty that you seek the gossamer of a day or the 
royal purple of a century ? Beauty of manner, tender con- 
siderateness, reverence, and equipoise will make it impos- 
sible for you ever to be desolate, and will insure your 
always being loved. No physical defect, however irreme- 
diable, bars you from this choicest of all exterior attractions. 
Beauty of utterance has a fadeless charm ; opens all hearts 
whose key it is worth while to wish for; and makes those 
once obscure, the favorites of fortune, the heroes of soci- 
ety, the peers of kings. Burns was a Highland peasant, 
but the magic of his song made him the idol of a nation ; 
and winsomeness of speech will always win whether upon 
the world's great stage or in the more sheltered home life, 

Frances E. Willard. 



76 MAY. 

9. The one thing a girl owes to the world, to herself, to 
her Maker, is a reverence for her own sex. Girls, I repeat, 
you cannot sufficiently realize your obligations to your own 
kind. Because you are girls, and not boys, women and not 
men, oh, try to be loyal to girls and women ! Pay homage 
to womankind; adorn it, place sacrifices upon its altars, 
rejoice in unceasing service to it, exalt it by every worthy 
endeavor ! What can be more beautiful than womanliness ! 
The next time you see the Sistine Madonna, look behind 
all the mother in the lovely face for the woman in it. Then 
see if you do not remark the same in Raphael's St. Cecilia, 
and in the Venus de Milo. Wherever masters have suc- 
ceeded in painting the Virgin, notice, aside from the holy 
look — if it is aside from that — the womanly look. 

A. H. R. 

10. Flowers spring to blossom where she walks 

The careful ways of duty ; 
Our hard, stiff lines of life with her 
Are flowing curves of beauty. 

Our homes are cheerier for her sake, 

Our door-yards brighter blooming, 
And all about the social air 

Is sweeter for her coming. 



And never tenderer hand than hers 

Unknits the brow of ailing ; 
Her garments to the sick man's ear 

Have music in their trailing. Whittier. 



MAY. 77 

11. The instinct of self-control, of gentleness, of con- 
sideration and forethought and quick sympathy, which go 
to make up what we call good breeding ; the absence of 
noise and hurry, the thousand and one little ways by which 
we can please people, or avoid displeasing them, — are all 
taught us by our own hearts. Good manners are the fine 
flower of civilization. And everybody can have them. I 
always say that one of the best-bred men of my acquaint- 
ance is Mr. Jarvis, the mason. I have known him come 
up out of a cistern to speak to me, dressed in overalls and 
a flannel shirt ; and his bow and his manner and the 
politeness of his address would have done credit to any 
gentleman in the world. Susan Coolidge. 

12. That happy union of frankness and reserve which 
is to be desired comes not by studying rules, either for 
candor or for caution. It results chiefly from an upright- 
ness of purpose, enlightened by a profound and delicate 
care for the feelings of others. This will go very far in 
teaching us what to confide, and what to conceal, in our 
own affairs ; what to repeat, and what to suppress, in those 
of other peeple. The stone in which nothing is seen, and 
the polished metal which reflects all things, are both alike 
hard and insensible. Arthur Helps. 

Cultivate the friendly spirit. If one would have friends 
he must be worthy of them. Make friends early in life. 
Hold fast to your friends. It is one of the commonest 
regrets in after life that early friendships were not kept 
up. Make a point of having friends amongst your elders. 
Friendship between those of the same age is sweeter, but 
friendship with elders is more useful, or, rather, they sup- 
plement each other. Theodore T. Munger. 



78 MAY. 

13. Such a starved bank of moss 

Till, that May-morn, 
Blue ran the flash across : 

Violets were born ! Robert Browning. 
If one should give me a dish of sand, and tell me 
there were particles of iron in it, I might look for them 
with my eyes, and search for them with my clumsy fingers, 
and be unable to detect them ; but let me take a magnet 
and sweep through it, and how would it draw to itself the 
almost invisible particles by the mere power of attraction ! 
The unthankful heart, like my finger in the sand, discovers 
no mercies ; but let the thankful heart sweep through the 
day, and, as the magnet finds the iron, so it will find in 
every hour some heavenly blessings — only, the iron in 
God's sand is gold. Holmes. 

14. Even if our work is spoilt as we near its completion, 
and, instead of gain, failure awaits us, we have still been 
winners in ourselves, because we have acquired habits of 
industry, have made our powers of perseverance stronger, 
and have developed physical or moral strength as well. 
Work is never lost. When Carlyle sat down to write his 
" French Revolution " the second time — a careless servant 
having burnt his manuscript — he was a nobler man than 
when he wrote out the first issue. When Walter Scott 
failed, and Abbotsford was encumbered with a large debt, 
when his dream of restoring a kind of baronial life was all 
shattered, he did a grander work than in the building of 
that magnificent estate ; for he strove with all the powers 
of his mind to earn the money which should repay his 
creditors. Though he died in the struggle, it was not 
fought in vain. A. H. R. 



MAY. 79 

15. All common things, each day's events, 

That with the hour begin and end, 
Our pleasures and our discontents, 
Are rounds by which we may ascend. 

We have not wings, we cannot soar, 

But we have feet to scale and climb. 
By slow degrees, by more and more, 
The cloudy summits of our time. 

Longfellow. 
And wherever a true wife comes, this home is always 
round her. The stars only may be over her head ; the 
glow-worm in the night-cold grass may be the only fire at 
her foot : but home is yet wherever she is ; and for a noble 
woman it stretches far round her, better than ceiled with 
cedar, or painted with vermilion, shedding its quiet light 
far, for those who else were homeless. Ruskin. 

16. I envy the good fortune of all walkers, and feel like 
joining myself to every tramp that comes along. I am 
jealous of the clergyman I read about the other day who 
footed it from Edinburgh to London, as poor Erne Deans 
did, carrying her shoes in her hand most of the way, and 
over the ground that rugged Ben Jonson strode, larking 
it to Scotland, so long ago. ... It would have been 
a good draught of the rugged cup to have walked with 
Wilson the ornithologist, deserted by his companions, 
from Niagara to Philadelphia through the snows of winter. 
I almost wish that I had been born to the career of a Ger- 
man mechanic, that I might have had that delicious adven- 
turous year of wandering over my country before I settled 
down to work. . . . John Burroughs. 



80 MAY. 

17. O, the blossoms ! All the world's a paradise now. 
It is high carnival out in the orchard, yes, and down among 
the meadow grasses too. The birds are the gladdest spec- 
tators, but the robins are the gayest of them all. Just 
think of a home all shielded and perfumed, all built and 
closed in with apple-blossoms ! And right in the midst of 
it, tuning his notes in harmony with the fluttering pink 
and white petals, sits a young robin boldly beseeching his 
newly found neighbor, who lives in sweet expectancy just 
over the branch : — 

" Come to my nest o' down, 

Lady-bird o' mine, 
Come in your russet gown — 

Don't you be too fine ! " A. H. R. 

18. In the first place, then, let us watch our course 
when we are entertaining strangers whose good opinion 
we wish to propitiate. We dress ourselves with care, we 
study what it will be agreeable to say, we do not suffer 
our natural laziness to prevent our being very alert in pay- 
ing small attentions, we start across the room for an easier 
chair, we stoop to pick up the fan, we search for the mis- 
laid newspaper, and all this for persons in whom we have 
no particular interest beyond the passing hour ; while with 
those friends whom we love and respect we too often sit 
in our old faded habiliments, and let them get their own 
chair, and look up their own newspaper, and fight their 
own way daily, without any of this preventing care. 

Harriet Beecher Stowe. 
She doeth little kindnesses which most leave undone, or 
despise. Lowell. 



MAY. 8 1 

19. Over the hedge I leaned one day 
To see my darling as she lay 

On the May grass, — it was not fair, 
I know, in me to see her there. 

The smile could only just get through 
The mouth which she together drew, 
That tender secret to repress 
Which tells itself by silentness. 

She did not raise her eyes above 
The hedge, to chide my look of love, 
Such fancies did about her close, 
Like sunbeams feeding on a rose. 

My passion to sad verse I set, 
( I had not got my beard as yet. ) 
And she my worship did not wrong, — 
The hedge was not between us long. 
" Mona Fifteen" Alice Cary. 

20. Do not waste a minute, not a second, in trying to 
demonstrate to others the merit of your own performance. 
If your work does not vindicate itself, you cannot vindicate 
it, but you can labor steadily on to something which needs 
no advocate but itself. . . . Toughen yourself a little 
and accomplish something better. Inscribe above your 
desk the words of Rivarol, " Genius is only great patience." 
It was Keats, the most precocious of all great poets, who 
declared that " nothing is finer for purposes of production 
than a very gradual ripening of the intellectual powers." 

T. W. Higginson. 



82 MAY. 

21. All honor and reverence to the divine beauty of 
form ! Let us cultivate it to the utmost in men, women, 
and children, — in our gardens and in our houses. But 
let us love that other beauty too, which lies in no secret 
of proportion, but in the secret of deep human smypathy. 
Paint us an angel, if you can, with a floating violet robe, 
and a face paled by the celestial light ; paint us yet oftener 
a Madonna, turning her mild face upward and opening 
her arms to welcome the divine glory ; but do not impose 
on us any aesthetic rules which shall banish from the region 
of Art those old women scraping carrots with their work- 
worn hands, those heavy clowns taking holiday in a dingy 
pot-house, those rounded backs and stupid weather-beaten 
faces that have bent over the spade and done the rough 
work of the world, — those homes with their tin pans, their 
brown pitchers, their rough curs, and their clusters of 
onions. George Eliot. 

22. If you have any trouble which seems intolerable, 
pray. . . . These implacable demons turn to smiling 
angels when we cast our care on God, and surrender our 
will to His will. James F. Clarke. 

To Him nothing is insignificant which moves the hearts 
of His children. James F. Clarke. 

Let no man call himself a Christian who lives without 
giving a part of his life to this duty. . . . Let our 
prayers, like the ancient sacrifices, ascend morning and 
evening. Let our days begin and end with God. 

Channing. 

" Do my best all round : keep good company, read good 
books, love good things, and cultivate soul and body as 
faithfully and wisely as I can." Louisa M. Alcott. 



MAY. 83 

23. Do not expect to escape criticism, girls. If you 
should go to dwell in the midst of a desert or to take up 
your abode on the top of a lonely mountain, some one 
would follow and pass judgment on the shape of your hat 
or the shape of your conduct. So try to accept honest 
criticism when it is given you openly, face to face ; but 
scorn with silent derision the cowardly thing that crawls 
up over the wall and tries to bite you in the back. 

A. H. R. 

24. For thee the sun shines and the earth rejoices 

In fragrance, music, light ; 
The spring-time wooes thee with a thousand voices, 
For thee her flowers are bright ; 

Youth crowns thee, and love waits upon thy 
splendor, 
Trembling beneath thine eyes ; 
The morning sky is yet serene and tender, 
Thy life before thee lies. 

Celia Thaxter. 

Gather, then, each flower that grows, 
When the young heart overflows, 
To embalm that tent of snows. 

Bear a lily in thy hand ; 

Gates of brass cannot withstand 

One touch of that magic wand. 

Bear through sorrow, wrong, and ruth, 

In thy heart the dew of youth, 

On thy lips the smile of truth. Longfellow. 



84 MAY. 

25. Knitting at her mother's door, 
Underneath a sycamore, 

That did long, white arms extend 

Round about her, like a friend, 

Saw I maiden Mona next. 

She was now become the text 

Of my dreams, my thoughts, my life, — 

Would she, could she be my wife ? 

Rows of pinks on either side, 
With their red mouths open wide, 
And the quail, with tawny breast 
Swelling out above her nest, 
And the lily's speckled head 
Shining o'er the spearmint bed ; 
All were fair, but more than fair 
Maiden Mona, knitting there. 

26. Round her eyes the hair fell down, — 
Sunshine on a leafy brown, — 

And her simple rustic dress 
Witched my worldly eyes, I guess. 
........... 

Something sacred did divide her 
From me, when I stood beside her : 
I was born to house and land, — 
She had but her heart and hand, — 
Yet she seemed so high above 
The aspiring of my love, 
That I stood in bashful shame, 
Trembling just to speak her name. 
« Mona Knitting." ALICE Cary. 



MAY. 85 

27. Where Cinderella dropped her shoe, 
'Tis said in fairy tales of yore, 
'Twas first the lady's slipper grew, 
And there its rosy blossom bore. 

And ever since in woodlands grey, 
It marks where spring retreating flew, 

Where speeding on her eager way, 
She left behind her dainty shoe. 

Elaine Goodale. 

28. No book is worth anything which is not worth 
much, nor is it serviceable, until it has been read, and 
re-read, and loved, and loved again ; and marked so that 
you can refer to the passages you want in it, as a soldier 
can seize the weapon he needs in an armory. 

Ruskix. 

One is sometimes asked by young people to recommend 
a course of reading. My advice would be that they should 
confine themselves to the supreme books in whatever liter- 
ature, or, still better, to choose some one great author, and 
make themselves thoroughly familiar with him. For as 
all roads lead to Rome, so do they likewise lead away from 
it ; and you will find that, in order to understand perfectly 
and weigh exactly any vital piece of literature, you will be 
gradually and pleasantly persuaded to excursions and ex- 
plorations of which you little dreamed when you began, 
and will find yourselves scholars before you are aware. 

Lowell. 

The true university of these days is a collection of 
books. Carlyle. 



86 MAY. 

29. To examine its evidence is not to try Christianity ; 
to admire its martyrs is not to try Christianity ; to com- 
pare and estimate its teachers is not to try Christianity ; 
to attend its rites and services with more than Mahometan 
punctuality is not to try or know Christianity. But for 
one week, for one day, to have lived in the pure atmos- 
phere of faith and love to God, of tenderness to man ; to 
have beheld earth annihilated, and heaven opened to the 
prophetic gaze of hope ; to have seen evermore revealed 
behind the complicated troubles of this strange, mysterious 
life, the unchanged smile of an eternal Friend, and every- 
thing that is difficult to reason solved by that reposing 
trust which is higher and better than reason, — to have 
known and felt this, I will not say for a life, but for a sin- 
gle blessed hour, that, indeed, is to have made experiment 
of Christianity. William Archer Butler. 

30. All her life Madame Roland had loved this people, 
even with the love of a mother for her first born. All her 
life she had been ready to shed her blood for it, in the 
conviction that a new generation would arise which should 
live to enjoy the freedom for which she was content to 
perish. That conviction made her passage to the scaffold 
a triumphal path, and invested her, as she stood in the 
death-cart, with a splendor as of victory. Like " a Star 
above the Storm" the beautiful woman, serenely radiant, 
in pure white raiment, with long dark locks falling in clus- 
ters to her girdle, passed through the streets of the blood- 
stained city, an embodiment of all that was highest and 
purest in the Revolution whose star was now quenched in 
the weltering storm. Mathilde Blind. 



MAY. 87 

31. I suppose that eye and touch and feeling are all 
educated, by the commonest teasing little everyday things ; 
the trying to fit things and lay them straight ; the making 
of beds ; the setting of tables. 

Mrs. A. D. T. Whitney. 

If Rose had ever felt that the gift of living for others 
was a poor one, she saw now how beautiful and blest it 
was, — how rich the returns, how wide the influence, how 
much more precious the tender tie which knit so many 
hearts together, than any breath of fame, or brilliant talent, 
that dazzled, but did not win and warm. 

Louisa M. Alcott. 
Companions sweet, 

Why do you weep, 
And where is cause for sorrow ? 
" Alas, the May 
Goes out to-day ; — " 
But June comes in to-morrow ! 

Elaine Goodale. 



JUNE. 

1. Hark, how sweet the thrushes sing! 

Hark, how clear the robins call ! 
Chorus of the happy spring, 
Summer's madrigal ! 

Flood the world with joy and cheer, 
O ye birds, and pour your song 

Till the farthest distance hear 
Notes so glad and strong ! 

Storm the earth with odors sweet, 
O ye flowers, that blaze in light ! 

Crowd about June's shining feet, 
All ye blossoms bright. 

Shout, ye waters, to the sun! 

Back are winter's fetters hurled ; 
Summer's glory is begun ; 

Beauty holds the world ! 

Celia Thaxter. 

2. This is the true nature of home — it is the place of 
peace; the shelter, not only from all injury, but from all 

terror, doubt, and division So far as it is a 

sacred place, a vestal temple, a temple of the hearth 
watched over by Household Gods, before whose faces 
none may come but those whom they can receive with 
love, — so far as it is this, and roof and fire are types only 
of a nobler shade and light, — shade as of the rock in a 
weary land, and light as of the Pharos in the stormy sea ; 
— so far it vindicates the same, and fulfils the praise, of 
home. Ruskin. 

8S 



JUNE. 89 

3. I do not ask you to be anything but a glad, sunny 
woman. I would have no counsels of mine recommended 
by long faces and formal behavior. I would have you so 
at peace with Heaven, with the world and with yourself, 
that tears shall flow only at the call of sympathy. I would 
have you immaculate as light, devoted to all good deeds, 
industrious, intelligent, patient, heroic. And crowning 
every grace of person and mind, every accomplishment, 
every noble sentiment, every womanly faculty, every deli- 
cate instinct, every true impulse, I would see religion upon 
your brow, the coronet by token of which God makes you 
a princess in his family, and an heir to the brightest glo- 
ries, the sweetest pleasures, the noblest privileges, and the 
highest honors of his kingdom. Timothy Titcomb. 

4. Oh, do not think it necessary to behold Nature in 
her great stretches of sublimity in order to appreciate her. 
You will come to know her far more easily, and much 
more helpfully, in a little woodside walk, or right here 
underneath these branches, than you will in Niagara Falls, 
or in looking at her in the great ocean. We should re- 
member, too, that not only the glow of autumn and the 
flush of summer are beautiful, but that every season, every 
climate, every aspect in the shifting panorama of Nature, 
has real beauty. Our own region, be it arid with parching 
suns, or wet with frequent rains ; be it always winter there, 
or always summer, is full of charm. A. H. R. 

" For one year," said Ramona, " I should lie and look 
up at the sky, my Allessandro, and do nothing else. It 
hardly seems as if it would be a sin to do nothing for a 
year, if one gazed steadily at the sky all the while." 

Helen Hunt Jackson. 



90 JUNE. 

5. And we can have this deepest life by beginning to 
live for God. Curb your passions. Begin from this 
moment to listen to the inward voice. Consecrate your 
heart. Meditate upon the Infinite as the holiest and best, 
set forth in the stars not so clearly as in the heart of 
Christ. Education is no more certain to bring knowledge 
than the humble obedience to these conditions is sure to 
bring the diviner life. The best things are sure. Toil 
may not bring money. Carefulness may not protect health. 
Study may not banish error. The utmost art cannot keep 
off the final sickness and the call of death. But the Divine 
life is possible to every one of us. " God may be had for 
the asking." T. Starr King. 

6. Her language is so sweet and fit 
You never have enough of it. 

If she smiles, the house is bright 
Without any candle-light. 
Whether that her hair is rolled 
Round an ivory comb, or gold, 
Pinned or no, I cannot tell, 
In itself it shines so well. 
Whether she doth wear her coat 
Loose, or buttoned to the throat, 
Hems or ruffles, plain or gay, 
Seems to me the sweetest way. 

By her innocence she awes 
Evil from her ; through love's laws, 
That so bind us like a cord, 
Each to all, she seeks the Lord. 
Mona Perfect. Alice Cary. 



JUNE. 91 

7. What gigantic plans we scheme, and how little we 
advance in the labor of a day ! If there is one lesson 
which experience teaches, surely it is this, to make plans 
that are strictly limited, and to arrange our work in a prac- 
ticable way within the limits which we must accept. 
Others expect so much from us that it seems as if we had 
accomplished nothing. " What ! have you done only 
that? " they say, or we know by their looks that they are 
thinking it. Hamerton. 

Tis but beating one's wings against the invisible to seek 
to know even to-morrow. William Black. 

8. The illuminated hours of life are few ; but those of 
our first youth have a piercing splendor which neither 
earlier nor later experience can by any chance absorb. 
Avis was perhaps sixteen, when one of these phosphores- 
cent hours flashed upon her. . . . She was down in 
her father's apple-orchard, where the low, outskirting 
branches yield the outlook to the sea. The stalks of the 
young corn turned their edges in profile towards the sun ; 
and the short silk hung like the hair of babies, tangled and 
falling. In the meadow the long grass rioted ; and black 
and brown and yellow bees made love to crimson clovers. 
How they blushed ! She should think they would. They 
were too lavish of their honey, those buxom clovers, like 
an untaught country lassie with a kiss. But the daisies 
that skirted the old gray stone walls, — the slim white 
daisies with the golden hearts, — looked to the young 
girl's fancy like the virgins in the Bible story, carrying 
each a burning lamp. 

Elizabeth Stuart Phelps. 



92 JUNE. 

9. Now the heart is so full that a drop overfills it, 
We are happy now because God wills it ; 

No matter how barren the past may have been, 
'Tis enough for us now that the leaves are green. 

Now is the high-tide of the year, 
And whatever of life hath ebbed away 

Comes flooding back with a ripply cheer, 
Into every bare inlet and creek and bay. 

Every clod feels a stir of might, 

An instinct within it that reaches and towers, 
And, groping blindly above it for light, 

Climbs to a soul in grass and flowers. 

Lowell. 

10. But what instruction the baby brings to the mother ! 
She learns patience, self-control, endurance. She learns 
to understand character, too, by dealing with the little 
ones, . . . and to have loved them is a liberal educa- 
tion. 

For the height of heights is love. The philosopher 
dries into a skeleton like that he investigates, unless love 
teaches him. He is blind among his microscopes, unless 
he sees in the humblest human soul a revelation that 
dwarfs all the work beside. While he grows gray in igno- 
rance among his crucibles, every girlish mother is being 
illuminated by every kiss of her child. That house is so 
far sacred, which holds within its walls this new-born heir 
of eternity. T. W. Higginson. 

Blessed is the woman who exalts. Bulwer. 



JUNE. 93 

n. It is more needful that I should have a fibre of 
sympathy connecting me with that vulgar citizen who 
weighs out my sugar in a vilely assorted cravat and waist- 
coat, than with the handsomest rascal in red scarf and 
green feathers ; — more needful that my heart should swell 
with loving admiration at some trait of gentle goodness in 
the faulty people who sit at the same hearth with me, or 
in the clergyman of my own parish, who is perhaps rather 
too corpulent, and in other respects is not an Oberlin or a 
Tillotson, than at the deeds of heroes whom I shall never 
know except by hearsay, or at the sublimest abstract of all 
clerical graces that was ever conceived by an able novelist. 

George Eliot. 

12. Don't try, girls, to get along without God, for He 
will not go on without you. You may fancy yourselves 
quite independent of the Hereafter and think you belong 
to just the things of earth. But you cannot really believe 
that ! " Of course, no one is an atheist," said a lovely old 
lady to me. " He may fancy he is ; but just think how 
lonesome he would be." A. H. R. 

Go to God with all your little cares, and hopes, and 
sins, and sorrows, as freely and confidingly as you come 
to your mother. Louisa M. Alcott. 

'• Fate ! " cried Rienzi ; " there is no fate ! Between the 
thought and the success, God is the only agent." 

Bulwer. 

Contentment abides with truth. And you will generally 
suffer for wishing to appear other than what you are, 
whether it be richer or greater or more learned. The 
mask soon becomes an instrument of torture. 

Arthur Helps. 



94 J UNE - 

13. Shall we not love knowledge, and use it to find out 
truth ; and place unspoken fidelity to conscience foremost 
amongst our duties ; and care for the progress of our race 
rather than for our own fame ; shall we not be truthful, 
and honest, and upright, and, to this end, brave — in pub- 
lic as in private life, and shall we not seek so to bear our- 
selves that men shall shrink from owning their ignobler 
thoughts and baser shifts to us, but shall never fear to 
avow high aims and pure deeds, while yet we retain our 
womanly kindness and all our domestic virtues unchanged ? 
All this we may know that we can be and do, if we will, 
for we have seen it exemplified in the life of Harriet 
Martineau. Mrs. F. Fenwick Miller. 

14. . . . Let any clever woman simply take it to 
heart to make everybody about her as happy as she can, 
and the result I believe will always be wonderful. . . . 
Let her try not so much to make her rooms splendid and 
aesthetically admirable as to make them thoroughly habi- 
table and comfortable for those who are to occupy them. 

. . . A drawing-room bright and clean, sweet with 
flowers in summer or with dried leaves in winter, with 
tables at which the inmates may occupy themselves, and 
easy chairs wherever they are wanted, and plenty of soft 
light and warmth, or else of coolness adapted to the 
weather, — this sort of room belongs more properly to a 
woman who seeks to make her house a province of the 
Kingdom of Heaveii than one which might be exhibited at 
South Kensington as having belonged to the Kingdom of 
Queen Anne. Frances Power Cobbe. 



JUNE. 95 

15. Reputation, after all, is but the shadow cast by 
character ; beauty, in this best and highest sense, com- 
mands all forces worth the having, in all worlds. Every 
form of attractiveness confesses the primacy of this. 
Beauty of character includes every good of which a human 
heart can know and makes the woman who possesses it a 
princess in Israel, whose home is everybody's heart, and 
whose Heaven is everywhere. The dullest eyes may re- 
flect this beauty ; the palest cheek bloom with it ; the most 
unclassic lips maybe enwreathed with its smile of ineffable 
good will and heavenly joy. For beauty of character comes 
only from loving obedience to every known law of God in 
nature and in grace. Lovingly to learn and dutifully to 
obey these laws of our beneficent Father is to live. 

Frances E. Willard. 

16. O, yes, girls, it's very sweet to recall such women 
as Alice and Phoebe Cary, Helen Hunt, Mrs. Browning, 
and Jean Ingelow who expressed in words such beautiful 
thoughts as could arise only from beautiful souls ; but it 
is dearer yet to us to remember that women uncounted are 
living those thoughts by daily acts. Learn to lift the 
cover from the casket of a woman's soul and you shall see 
jewels that never yet have been exposed to the glance of 
one who looks for them in sparkling eyes, in glowing 
cheeks, and radiant hair. 

When you have learned to look for inner beauty you 
will learn to make it your own. Behind your lovely faces 
and your beautiful forms there will be nourished the lofti- 
est ideal womanhood, which will make you not only com- 
prehend the worth of another, but will help you to interpret 
all that is best and loveliest everywhere. A. H. R. 



g6 june. 

17. I wonder what the Clover thinks ! — 

Intimate friend of Bob-o-link's. 

Sweet by the roadsides, sweet by rills, 
Sweet in the meadows, sweet on hills, 
Sweet in its white, sweet in its red, 
Oh, half its sweet cannot be said. 

Saxe Holm. 

18. The two arts of letter-writing and conversation, in- 
valuable both as instruments of pleasure and of culture, 
seem to be dying out before the encroachment of innu- 
merable trifles, absorbing amusements, tyrannical egotisms, 
and that pernicious flood of ephemeral literature, whose 
varieties are daily spawned upon all tables. The long, 
careful letters, full of thought, full of true personal inter- 
est and earnest general sentiment, so common two or three 
generations ago, are all but unknown now. There is no 
time left for them. W. R. Alger. 

Tight lacing is not only a hideous stupidity, it is a crime, 
— a crime that casts a heavy burden upon the next genera- 
tion, and renders the present one incapable of its duties. 

Miss Oakey. 

The prevailing fashion of using tight and high-heeled 
boots and shoes cannot be too strongly condemned as both 
hurtful and ugly. High heels throw the weight of the 
body forwards, and force the foot down on to the toes. 
This will in time not only crush all shape out of the toes, 
causing tender feet, corns, bunions, distorted joints, and 
in-growing nails, but makes the natural gait stiff and un- 
gainly. Physiology. 



JUNE. 97 

19. It is good for us to think that no grace or blessing 
is truly ours till we are aware that God has blessed some 
one else with it through us. Phillips Brooks. 

No task was too hard or humble ; no day long enough 
to do all she longed to do ; and no sacrifice would have 
seemed too great for those whom she regarded with stead- 
ily increasing love and gratitude. 

Louisa M. Alcott. 

20. Frank-hearted hostess of the field and wood, 
Gypsy, whose roof is every spreading tree, 
June is the pearl of our New England year. 
Still a surprisal, though expected long, 

Her coming startles. Long she lies in wait, 

Makes many a feint, peeps forth, draws coyly back 

Then, from some southern ambush in the sky, 

With one great gush of blossom storms the world. 

A week ago the sparrow was divine : 

The bluebird, shifting his light load of song 

From post to post along the cheerless fence, 

Was as a rhymer ere the poet came ; 

But now, O rapture ! sunshine winged and voiced, 

Pipe blown through by the warm wild wind of the 

west 
Shepherding his soft doves of fleecy clouds, 
Gladness of woods, skies, waters, all in one, 
The bobolink has come, and, like the soul 
Of the sweet season vocal in a bird, 
Gurgles in ecstacy we know not what 
Save June ! Dear June ! Now God be praised for 

June. Lowell. 



98 JUNE. 

21. What worthy pursuit can you not, by excellence, 
raise into honor and esteem ? Matilda of Normandy em- 
broidered, in the quiet of her castle, stitch by stitch, and 
day after day, the battle of Hastings, at which the Con- 
queror won. When that great mingling of Normans and 
Saxons proved to be the important and the last step in the 
making of England, men looked back to the battle which 
decided the Norman Conquest, and, lacking needed infor- 
mation from chronicles, turned to the work of Matilda. 
There, on the Bayeux tapestry, was wrought the battle 
scene they required, — a piece of woman's work. It was a 
peasant girl, you know, who brought victory to France in 
the Hundred Years' War between that country and Eng- 
land. A. H. R. 

22. O Fortunate, O happy day, 

When a new household finds its place 
Among the myriad homes of earth, 
Like a new star just sprung to birth, 
And rolled on its harmonious way 

Into the boundless realms of space ! 



For two alone, there in the hall, 
Is spread the table round and small ; 
Upon the polished silver shine 
The evening lamps, but, more divine, 
The light of love shines over all ; 

Of love, that says not mine and thine, 
But ours, for ours is thine and mine. 

Longfellow. 



june. 99 

23. Out-door habits depend upon the personal tastes 
of the individual, and are best cultivated by educating 
these. If a young girl is born and bred with a love of any 
branch of natural history or of horticulture, happy is she ; 
for the mere unconscious interest of the pursuit is an 
added lease of life to her. It is the same with all branches 
of Art whose pursuit leads into the open air. Rosa Bon- 
heur, with her wanderings among mountains and pastures, 
alternating with the vigorous work of the studio, needed 
no other appliances for health. The same advantages 
come to many, in the bracing habits of household labor. 

T. W. HlGGINSON. 

24. A young woman who is afraid of compromising her 
position by recognizing men out of her set, or out of a 
certain line of genteel occupations, shows by how frail a 
tenure she holds her own respectability. I could name to 
you women who have not only a recognized but a com- 
manding position in the best society, who are as uniformly 
and systematically polite to the clerk who sells them silks, 
as to the pets of their circle ; who have a bow and a smile 
for all with whom they have ever been thrown into per- 
sonal relations, and who, by this very politeness vindicate 
their place among those whom society calls ladies. 

Timothy Titcomb. 
In the meantime Helen is at Clifton, where Horace 
Evarts has also gone, and Mrs. Long wrote that they all 
thought it would soon be an engagement. I wish people 
wouldn't speculate in this horrid way, settling a girl's life 
before she knows herself in the least what she really wants 
or needs; but they will, I suppose, to the end of time. 

Helen Campbell. 



IOO JUNE. 

25. Observe the humblest flower that grows, and first 
you may notice only its color, or form, or fragrance. Ob- 
serve more closely, handle it, and you are made a little 
thoughtful, because, all unconsciously to yourself, it may 
be, the flower is doing something to your mind and heart 
and soul. Perhaps its velvety softness and its lowliness 
speak to you of humility and gentleness ; or perhaps its 
fragrance breathes sweetness into your life and feeling, — 
only a little, to be sure, but that little means something. 
The spirit of the flower speaks to your spirit ; and you 
wonder what relation it bears to you, and if you are not 
both connected with the spirit of God. A. H. R. 

26. Regard not much who is for thee, or who against 
thee : but give all thy thought and care to this, that God 
be with thee in everything thou doest. 

Have a good conscience, and God will defend thee. 

For whom God will help, no malice of man shall be able 
to hurt. 

If thou canst be silent and suffer, without doubt thou 
shalt see that the Lord will help thee. 

By two wings a man is lifted up from things earthly, 
namely, by Simplicity and Purity. 

If thou intend and seek nothing else but the will of God 
and the good of thy neighbor, thou shalt thoroughly enjoy 
inward liberty. Thomas a Kempis. 

He liveth long who liveth well ; 

All else is life but flung away ; 
He liveth longest who can tell 

Of true things truly done each day. 

H. BONAR. 



JUNE. IOI 

27. What a suffocating feeling it is, leaving school 
for ever — a period, an era completely passed and left 
behind ! One feels that childhood is over now, and a 
sense of tenfold increased responsibility and independence, 
so to speak, is a weight upon the spirit .... One's 
future education and formation of character, whether for 
good or evil, depends now upon one's self. Many a power 
of mind must be exercised, which, as yet, has had little 
opportunity to try its flight; judgment and discretion and 
a thousand things are needful ; one must think and act 
far more for oneself ; self-denial must be learnt ; oh ! so 
much has to be done ! One's spirit'is a precious diamond ; 
the rougher cutting work has been done by other hands, 
now one must undertake the further beautifying oneself. 

Frances R. Havergal. 

28. He serves all who dares to be true. 

Emerson. 

Those love truth best who to themselves are true, 
And what they dare to dream of, dare to do. 
Sincerity is impossible, unless it pervade the whole 

being, and the pretence of it saps the very foundation of 

character. 

She hath a natural, wise sincerity, 

A simple truthfulness, and these have lent her 

A dignity as moveless as the centre ; 
So that no influence of earth can stir 

Her steadfast courage, nor can take away 

The holy perfectness, which, night and day, 
Unto her queenly soul doth minister. Lowell. 



102 JUNE. 

29. Small talk is like small change, good to buy light 
commodities. It serves to scatter smiling favors, pretty 
jests, merry words, and wins a way into the good graces of 
our acquaintances. It fills many an hour that otherwise 
would be moody and, loans a sense of cheerfulness and 
sportiveness to girls especially. Even nonsense is at 
times convenient and in place, and girls can no more help 
falling into it than birds can help singing when the sun 
shines. It is really sad when a girl becomes so ultra 
proper that she always talks the strongest sense. But re- 
member, girls, small talk must not be deliberate fault-find- 
ing, nor unjust criticism, nor that kind of gossip which 
creates a love for scandal and only adds evil to evil. And 
bear in mind, too, that the gold of real conversation is not 
to be preferred to, nor exchanged for, the tinsel of chat- 
ter. A. H. R. 

30. I verily believe that any young lady who would em- 
ploy some of her leisure time in collecting wild flowers, 
carefully examining them, verifying them, and arranging 
them ; or who would in her summer trip to the sea-coast 
do the same by the common objects of the shore, instead 
of wasting her holiday, as one sees hundreds doing, in 
lounging on benches and criticising dresses — that such a 
young lady, I say, would not only open her own mind to a 
world of wonder, beauty, and wisdom, but would save 
herself from the habit of gossip ; because she would have 
things to think of and not merely persons ; facts instead 
of fancies ; while she would acquire something of accu- 
racy, of patience, of methodical observation and judgment, 
which would stand her in good stead in the events of 
daily life. Charles Kingsley. 



JULY. 

i, I would help the youngest of you to remember what 
noble Margaret Fuller said : " No woman can give her 
hand with dignity, or her heart with loyalty, until she has 
learned how to stand alone" It is not so much what comes 
to you as what you come to, that determines whether you 
are a winner in the great race of life. Never forget that 
the only indestructible material in destiny's fierce crucible 
is character. Say this, not to another — say it to yourself ; 
utter it early, and repeat it often : Fail me not thou. 

Frances E. Willard. 

2. The cares and worries of housekeeping are not re- 
pugnant to me. With a lively taste for the acquisition of 
knowledge, I yet feel that I could pass the remainder of my 
life without opening a book or being bored by not doing 
so. Let only the home I live in be embellished by order, 
peace, and harmony; let me only feel that I have helped 
towards making it so, and be able to tell myself at the 
close of each day that it has been usefully spent for the 
good of a few, — and I shall value existence and daily bless 
the rising of the sun. M ad am e Roland. 

Truly, from the smallest Little Peddington that carries 
on, year by year, its bloodless wars, its harmless scandals, 
its daily chronicle of interminable nothings, to the great 
metropolitan world, fashionable, intellectual, noble, or 
royal, the blight of civilized life is gossip. 

Miss Mulock. 

The worst is never true of anybody. 

Mrs. A. D. T. Whitney. 

103 



104 JULY. 

3. Not unfrequently the most important years of a life, 
the years which tell most on the character, are unmarked 
by any notable events. A steady, orderly routine, a grad- 
ual progression, perseverance in hard work, often do more 
to educate and form than a varied and eventful life. 

Edna Lyall. 
Look at a cathedral from without, and the windows 
are all dull and discolored and meaningless ; but step in- 
side the hallowed edifice, and they glow with gules and 
amethyst, and tinge the sunlight with the grandeur or 
pathos of sacred histories. So it is with human life. It 
often looks to us dingy and inexplicable ; but step within 
the sanctuary of faith, and God's eternal sunlight, making 
the whole edifice radiant with eternal beauty and with in- 
finite significance, streams into it with many colored glories 
and divine mercy and human heroism or toil. 

Canon Farrar. 

4. Think of your home — write and send and talk 
about it. Let it be nearer and nearer to your thought, the 

farther you have to travel from it And for 

your country, and for that flag, never dream a dream but 
of serving her as she bids you, though the service carry 
you through a thousand hells. No matter what happens 
to you, no matter who flatters you or who abuses you, 
never look at another flag, never let a night pass but you 
pray God to bless that flag. Remember, boy, that behind 
all these men you have to do with, behind officers, and gov- 
ernment, and people even, there is the Country Herself, 
your Country, and that you belong to Her as you belong 
to your own mother. Edward Everett Hale. 



JULY. 105 

5. ... As a rose opens to the summer's warmth, 
Guenn's womanliness awakened more and more, softening 
much that had been hard in her. Yet she lost none of 
those dominant characteristics which separated her radi- 
cally from other girls, and made her peculiarly herself, — 
her boylike instinct for fair play, fiery scorn of a blow in 
the back, and large-hearted protection of the feeble, unde- 
fended, and absent, — attributes seldom, indeed, found or 
expected in womankind, from its queens down to its fish- 
girls, but nevertheless worthy of some contemplation on 
the part of those interested in the higher education of 
women, as rarer than decorative art, more precious than 
Sanscrit. Blanche Willis Howard. 

6. It was a maxim with Madame de Stael that polite- 
ness is the art of choosing among one's real thoughts. 
Her whole demeanor was marked by a disposition to 
oblige ; there were abundant wit and vivid repartee, but 
no chicanery, and, especially, no severity, in her expres- 
sions. Abel Stevens. 

Are there not women who fill our vase with wine and 
roses to the brim, so that the wine runs over and fills the 
house with perfume ; who inspire us with courtesy ; who 
unloose our tongues, and we speak ; who anoint our eyes, 
and we see ? We say things we never thought to have 
said; for once our walls of habitual reserve vanished, and 
left us at large ; we were children playing with children in 
a wide field of flowers. Steep us, we cried, in these influ- 
ences, for days, for weeks, and we shall be sunny poets, 
and will write out in many-colored words the romance 
that you are. Emerson. 



106 JULY. 

7. We should begin life with books, they multiply the 
sources of employment ; so does capital ; but capital is of no 
use unless we live on the interest — books are waste paper 
unless we spend in action the wisdom we get from thought. 

Bulwer. 
Nothing is to be gained by pretending to like what 
one really dislikes, or to enjoy what one does not find 
profitable, or even intelligible. If a reader is not honest 
and sincere in this matter, there is small hope for him. 
The lowest taste may be cultivated and improved, and radi- 
cally changed ; but pretense and artificiality can never 
grow into anything better. They must be wholly rooted 
out at the start. If you dislike Shakespeare's " Hamlet," 
and greatly enjoy a trashy story, say so with sincerity and 
sorrow, if occasion requires, and hope and work for a re- 
versal of your taste. " It's guid to be honest and true," 
says Burns, and nowhere is honesty more needed than 
here. C. F. Richardson. 

8. But the country girls (Alice and Phebe Cary) uncul- 
tured in mind and rustic in manners, not needing to be told 
the immense distance which separated them from the world 
of letters which they longed to enter, would not be dis- 
couraged. If they must darn and bake, they would also 
study and write, and at last publish : if candles were de- 
nied them, a saucer of lard with a bit of rag for wick could 
and did serve instead. And so, for ten long years, they 
studied and wrote and published without pecuniary recom- 
pense ; often discouraged and despondent, yet never de- 
spairing ; looking out to the graveyard on the near hillside 
with a regret for the past, and over and beyond it into the 

unknown distance with hope for the future. 

Ada Carnahan. 



JULY. 107 

9. The best- part of the home should ever be regarded 
as personal, and rigidly held so. It is first and most a 
question of good breeding, fine tastes, simple and charming 
habits, wealth of mind and heart, and handsome hospitality 
to the better nature. Sumner Ellis. 

A woman puts all her income into party-dresses, and 
thinks anything will do to wear at home. All her old 
tumbled finery, her frayed, dirty silks and soiled ribbons, 
are made to do duty for her hours of intercourse with her 
dearest friends. Some seem to be really principled against 
wearing a handsome dress in every-day life ; they " cannot 
afford " to be well-dressed in private. Now what I should 
recommend would be to take the money necessary for one 
or two party-dresses and spend it upon an appropriate 
and tasteful home-toilette, and to make it an avowed object 
to look prettily at home. Harriet Beecher Stowe. 

10. It is of great value here and now to anticipate 
time and live to-day the eternal life. That we may all do. 
The joys of heaven will begin as soon as we attain the 
character of heaven and do its duties. That may begin 
to-day. It is everlasting life to know God, to have His 
spirit dwelling in you, yourself at one with Him. Try that 
and prove its worth. Justice, usefulness, wisdom, religion, 
love, are the best things we hope for in heaven. Try them 
on — they will fit you here not less becomingly. They are 
the best things of earth. Think no outlay of goodness 
and piety too great. You will find your reward begin here. 
As much goodness and piety, so much heaven. Men will 
not pay you — God will ; pay you now, hereafter and for- 
ever- Theodore Parker. 



Io8 JULY. 

ii. She gave out of herself, as if she had possessed 
the life everlasting before her time. She had bread to eat 
that he knew not of. He could not think of her as sink- 
ing, dejected, in need, ahungered. Her splendid health was 
like a god to her. She leaned against her own physical 
strength as another woman might lean upon a man's. She 
had the repose of her full mental activity. She had her 
dangerous and sacred feminine nerve under magnificent 
training. It was her servant, not her tyrant ; her wealth, 
not her poverty ; the source of her power, not the exponent 
of her weakness. She moved on her straight and narrow 
way between life and death, where one hysteric moment 
would be fatal, with a glorious poise. The young man ac- 
knowledged from the bottom of his heart that the Doctor 
was a balanced and a beautiful character. He had read 
of such women. He had never seen one. 

Elizabeth Stuart Phelps. 

12. There is always a best way of doing everything, if 
it be to boil an egg. Manners are the happy ways of doing 
things; each once a stroke of genius or of love, — now 
repeated and hardened into usage. 

Your manners are always under examination, and by 
committees little suspected, — a police in citizens' clothes, 
— but are awarding or denying you very high prizes when 
you least think of it. 

Look on this woman. There is not beauty, nor brilliant 
sayings, nor distinguished power to serve you ; but all see 
her gladly ; her whole air and impression are healthful. 

Manners require time, as nothing is more vulgar than 
haste. . Emerson. 



JULY. IO9 

13. Let nothing make thee sad or fretful 
Or too regretful, 

Be still. 

What God hath ordered must be right ; 

Then find in it thine own delight, 

My Will. Paul Flemming. 

Never mind your first failures, girls. No matter if 
the biscuits are " as heavy as lead " and numerous enough 
to supply a factory boarding-house. Laugh with the rest 
at your stupidity ; but, all the while, keep a firm hold of 
pride and make a secret resolve never to abandon biscuit- 
baking till you have attained efficiency in making bread 
delicious to the taste and satisfactory in quantity. It is 
well to be thankful for defeat sometimes because we have 
an opportunity then for observing what the strength of 
our pride and perseverance will lead us to really conquer 
next. A. H. R. 

14. When one first catches the smell of the sea his 
lungs seem involuntarily to expand, the same as they do 
when he steps into the open air after long confinement in- 
doors. There before him is aboriginal space, and the 
breath of it thrills and dilates his body. . . It is a 
breath out of the morning of the world — bitter, but so 
fresh and tonic ! . . . We seem to breathe a larger 
air on the coast. It is the place for large types, large 
thoughts. 'Tis not farms or a township, we see now, but 
God's own domain. Possession, civilization, boundary 
lines cease, and there within reach is a clear page of terres- 
trial space as unmarred and as unmarrable as if plucked 
from the sidereal heavens. j 0HN Burroughs. 



IIO JULY. 

15. Easy, pleasant and beautiful as it is to obey, de- 
velopment of character is not complete when the person is 
fitted only to obey. There comes a time in most women's 
lives when they have to learn how to govern — first, them- 
selves, then those about them. I say to learn ; because it 
has to be learnt. Miss Mulock. 

She was one of that large class of women who, mod- 
erately endowed with talents, earnest and true-hearted 
are driven by necessity, temperament, or principle out into 
the world to find support, happiness, and home for them- 
selves. Many turn back discouraged ; more accept shadow 
for substance, and discover their mistake too late. The 
weakest lose their purpose and themselves ; but the strong- 
est struggle on, and after danger and defeat earn at last 
the best success this world can give them, — the possession 
of a brave and cheerful spirit, rich in self-knowledge, self- 
control, and self-help. Louisa M. Alcott. 

16. Were I to pray for a taste which should stand me 
in stead under every variety of circumstances, and be a 
source of happiness and cheerfulness to me during life, and 
a shield against its ills, however things might go amiss, 
and the world frown upon me, it would be a taste for read- 
ing. Give a man this taste, and the means of gratifying it, 
and you can hardly fail of making him a happy man ; un- 
less, indeed, you put into his hands a most perverse 
selection of books. You place him in contact with the 
best society in every period of history — with the wisest, 
the wittiest, the tenderest, the bravest, and the purest char- 
acters who have adorned humanity. You make him a 
denizen of all nations, a contemporary of all ages. The 
world has been created for him. Sir John Herschel. 



JULY. Ill 

17. Much must be borne which it is hard to bear, 
Much given away which it were sweet to keep. 
God help us all, who need indeed His care, 
And yet I know the Shepherd loves His sheep. 

Ruth Ogden. 
A Son of God who has declared everlasting war 
against disease, ignorance, sin, death, and all which makes 
men miserable. Those are his enemies ; and he reigns, and 
will reign, till he has put all enemies under his feet, and 
there is nothing left in God's universe but order and useful- 
ness, health and beauty, knowledge and virtue, in the day 
when God shall be all in all. 

This all-good Son of God I preach unto you, and I say 
to you, Trust him, and obey him. Obey him, not lest he 
should become angry with you and harm you, like the false 
gods of the heathen, but because his commandments are 
life ; because he has made them for your good. 

Charles Kingsley. 
18. Impartial treatment of those we meet in society is 
certainly very charming. We say it is a great accomplish- 
ment to be able to speak a pleasant word to the neighbor 
on the right, and a different, though equally expressive, 
one to the friend on the left. Mary likes books, Sally 
prefers society, Ruth enjoys housekeeping, Margaret is 
fond of music. Then why not ask Mary if she has noticed 
the beautiful woodcuts in the last Ifar/er's, or seen the 
new edition of Hawthorne? Why not inquire of Sallie 
about the last matinee and the last hop ? Why not ask 
Ruth how she made those delicious rolls, and how she 
prepared the coffee ? And why not make Margaret give you 
her opinion of Wagner or of Beethoven. A. H. R. 



112 JULY. 

19. "Nonsense! You don't belong to the sisterhood, 
and can't for a dozen years. The crinkles must get out 
of your hair, the twinkles out of your eyes, and the red off 
your cheeks, before you read your title clear," said Uncle 
Pepperfield. " Besides, there are no old maids nowadays, 
only a few left over from the last century, hidden away in 
corners. Bless 'em ! They ought to have as much honor 
paid to them as folks are paying to old spinning-wheels 
and other precious relics. No : the women who don't get 
married in these days know the reason why, and other 
folks generally are ready to believe it is a good one. Some 
make themselves so smart it is likely they were predestin- 
ated to just that smartness and are as great a success as if 
they had married." Annette Noble. 

Better be happy old maids than unhappy wives. 

Louisa M. Alcott. 
That which is striking and beautiful is not always good, 
but that which is good is always beautiful. 

Ninon de Lenclos. 

20. The two daughters, Jane and Maria, had naturally 
very sweet voices, and, when they were little, trilled tunes 
in a very pleasant and bird-like manner. But now, having 
been instructed by the best masters, and heard the very 
first artists, they never sing or play ; the piano is shut, and 
their voices are dumb. If you request a song, they tell 
you that they never sing now ; papa has such an exquisite 
taste, he takes no interest in any common music ; in short, 
having heard Jenny Lind, Grisi Alboni, Mario, and others 
of the tuneful shell, this family have concluded to abide in 
silence. Harriet Beecher Stowe. 



JULY. 113 

21. Yet sets she not her soul so steadily 
Above, that she forgets her ties to earth, 
But her whole thought would almost seem to be 
How to make glad one lowly human hearth ; 
For with a gentle courage she doth strive 
In thought and word and feeling so to live 
As to make earth next heaven ; and her heart 
Herein doth show its most exceeding worth, 
That, bearing in her frailty her just part, 
She hath not shrunk from evils of this life, 
But hath gone calmly forth into the strife, 
And all its sins and sorrows hath withstood 
With lofty strength of patient womanhood : 
For this I love her great soul more than all, 
That, being bound, like us, with earthly thrall, 
She walks so bright and heaven-like therein, — 
Too wise, too meek, too womanly, to sin. 

Lowell. 

22. Many a summer morning have I crept out of the 
still house before anyone was awake, and, wrapping myself 
closely from the chill wind of dawn, climbed to the top of 
the high cliff called the Head to watch the sun rise. Pale 
grew the lighthouse frame before the broadening day as, 
nestling in a crevice at the cliff's edge, I watched the 
shadows draw away and morning break. Facing the east 
and south, with the Atlantic before me, what happiness 
was mine as the deepening rose-color flushed the delicate 
cloud-flocks that dappled the sky, where the gulls soared, 
rosy too, while the calm sea blushed beneath. Infinite 
variety of beauty always awaited me, and filled me with an 
absorbing, unreasoning joy such as makes the song-sparrow 
sing,— a sense of perfect bliss. Celia Thaxter. 



114 JULY. 

23. In the old, historic part of Boston, close by the 
chime of bells given to the American colonists by King 
George, under the vigilant eye of the old cockerel, there 
stood, in 1816, a "rough cast" house. There, amid the 
summer heats, was born, of stern Puritan stock, a blue-eyed 
girl, who afterwards, single-handed, fought her way to an 
eminence where she stood a queen, her royal right unchal- 
lenged ! Boston proudly boasts that her day and genera- 
tion had not Charlotte Cushman's equal. In 1867 tne old 
house was torn down and in its place a handsome brick 
schoolhouse was built, — the Cushman School. Here she 
made her "maiden speech " to upturned girlish faces, and 
said that higher than her culture or genius or graces of 
character, she ranked her ability for work. This was the 
secret of her success, and the legacy she bequeathed to the 
girls of the Cushman School. Anon. 

24. Some one once asked the Duke of Wellington 
what his secret was for winning battles. And he said that 
be had no secret ; that he did not know how to win battles, 
and that no man knew. For all, he said, that man could 
do, was to look beforehand steadily at all the chances, and 
lay all possible plans : but from the moment the battle 
began, he said, no mortal prudence was of use, and no 
mortal man could know what the end would be. A thou- 
sand new accidents might spring up every hour, and scatter 
all his plans to the winds ; and all that man could do was 
to comfort himself with the thought that he had done his 
best, and to trust in God. . . . My friends, learn from 
this a lesson for the battle of life, which every one of us 
has to fight from the cradle to the grave. 

Charles Kingsley. 



JULY. II5 

25. Beware of excess, girls. Kinds of dissipation seem 
to be not worse than the frequency with which one indulges 
in them. Extremes in sports, in amusements of any kind 
either work disaster or get worn out from too constant 
use. Moderation and discretion are as well worth consid- 
eration in our times of enjoyment as in hours of hard work. 
Lawn tennis every afternoon, dancing parties every week, 
novels every rainy day, not only conceal all the virtue 
there might be in such sport or entertainment if less fre- 
quently resorted to, but dissipate the wholesome delight 
in other pleasures as well. Too much of a sport, too much 
of certain gayeties, in themselves well meaning, sap physi- 
cal and moral strength, and make life contain nothing 
fresh and new. A. H. R. 

26. " Be not simply good, be good for something," said 
Henry D. Thoreau. A bright-eyed girl of eighteen used to 
come to me on Friday evenings to give me German lessons. 
To be sure, I have lived in Germany, and she has never 
been out of Illinois, but then that language is not my spe- 
cialty, while it is hers. " How is it that though so young, 
you have made yourself independent ? " I inquired of her 
one day. Listen to the reply: " My mother was always 
quoting this saying of Carlyle : ' The man who has a six- 
pence commands the world — to the extent of that six- 
pence.' I early laid this sentiment to heart. Besides, 
when I was fifteen years old, I heard a sermon on the text ; 
1 This one thing I do.' I thought, why not in everyday, 
affairs as well as in religion do one thing well, rather than 
many things indifferently, and in that way secure the magic 
sixpence of Carlyle. Frances E. Willard. 



Il6 JULY. 

27. Fair was she to behold, that maiden of seventeen 
summers. 

Down the long street she passed, with her chaplet of beads 
and her missal, 

Wearing the Norman cap, and her kirtle of blue, and the 
earrings, 

Brought in the olden time from France, and since, as an 
heirloom, 

Handed down from mother to child, through long genera- 
tions. 

But a celestial brightness — a more ethereal beauty — 

Shone on her face and encircled her form, when, after con- 
fession, 

Homeward serenely she walked with God's benediction 
upon her. 

When she had passed it seemed like the ceasing of exqui- 
site music. Longfellow. 

28. I bring fresh showers for the thirsting flowers, 
From the seas and the streams ; 

I bear light shade for the leaves when laid 

In their noonday dreams. 
From my wings are shaken the dews that waken 

The sweet buds every one, 
When rocked to rest on their Mother's breast, 

As she dances about in the sun. 
I wield the flail of the lashing hail, 

And whiten the green plains under ; 
And then again I dissolve in rain, 

And laugh as I pass in thunder. SHELLEY. 



JULY. 117 

29. Economy doesn't mean scrimping in one place to 
make a show in another. Louisa M. Alcott. 

" We say that it is the duty of every man, with any 
means, to observe proportion in his surplus expenses ; to 
have a conscientious order with regard to the service 
which his superfluous dollars discharge. Over against 
every prominent allowance for a personal luxury, the ce- 
lestial record book ought to show some entry in favor of 
the cause of goodness and suffering humanity ; for every 
guinea that goes into a theatre, a museum, an atheneum, 
or the treasury of a music hall, there ought to be some 
twin guinea pledged for a truth, or flying on some errand 
of mercy in a city so crowded with misery as this. 

Thomas Starr King. 

30. A word, or the want of a word, is a little thing"; 
but into the momentary mound or chasm, so made or left, 
throng circumstances ; these thrust wider and wider asun- 
der, till the whole round bulk of the world may lie between 
two lives. Mrs. A. D. T. Whitney. 

O my lost love, and my own, own love, 

And my love that loved me so ! 
Is there never a chink in the world above, 

Where they listen for words from below ? 

Jean Ingelow. 

Could ye come back to me, Douglas, Douglas, 

In the old likeness that I knew, 
I would be so faithful, so loving, Douglas, 

Douglas, Douglas, tender and true. 

Mrs. Mulock (Craik). 



Il8 JULY. 

31. It would be the height or absurdity for the child to 
think and speak of its father as if he were a child too, and 
could do no more than the boy's playmates. Yet this is the 
common error of the children of God. We do not raise 
our thoughts to a god-like level. We think our own 
thoughts of God, and straightway we doubt. Oh, that we 
rose to God's thoughts, and tried to conceive how He 
looks upon matters ! Surely he taketh up the isles as a 
very little thing, and the mountains he weighs in scales, 
If our troubles were set in the light of God's power, and 
love, and faithfulness, and wisdom, they would become to 
us small burdens. Why should we not so regard them ? 

Spurgeon. 



AUGUST. 

1. According to the calendar, the summer ought to cul- 
minate about the 21st of June, but in reality it is some 
weeks later ; June is a maiden month all through. It is 
not high noon in nature till about the first or second week 
in July. \Yhen the chestnut tree blooms, the meridian of 
the year is reached. By the first of August, it is fairly one 
o'clock. The lustre of the season begins to dim, the foli- 
age of the trees and woods to tarnish, the plumage of the 
birds to fade, and their songs to cease. The hints of ap- 
proaching fall are on every hand. How suggestive this 
thistle-down, for instance, which, as I sit by the open win- 
dow, comes in and brushes softly across my hand ! The 
first snow-flake tells of winter not more plainly than this 
driving down heralds the approach of fall. Come here, 
my fairy, and tell me whence you come and whither you go ? 

John Burroughs. 

2. But Margery sat on the doorsteps and wondered, as 
the sea sounded louder, and the sunshine grew warmer 
around her. It was all so strange, and grand, and beauti- 
ful ! Her heart danced with joy to the music that went 
echoing through the wide world from the roots of the 
sprouting grass to the great golden blossom of the sun. 

And when the round, gray eyes closed that night, at the 
first peep of the stars, the angels looked down and won- 
dered over Margery. For the wisdom of the wisest being 
God has made ends in wonder ; and there is nothing on 
earth so wonderful as the budding soul of a little child. 

Lucy Larcom. 

119 



120 AUGUST. 

3. Kindness to animals is no unworthy exercise of be 
nevolence. We hold that the life of brutes perishes with 
their breath, and that they are never to be clothed again 
with consciousness. The inevitable shortness, then, of 
their existence should plead for them touchingly. The 
insects on the surface of the water, poor ephemeral things 
— who would heedlessly abridge their dancing pleasure of 
to-day? Such feelings we should have toward the whole 
brute creation. To those animals, over which we are mas- 
ters for however short a time, we have positive duties to 
perform. This seems too obvious to be insisted upon ; 
but there are persons who act as though they thought they 
could buy the right of ill-treating any of God's creatures. 

Arthur Helps. 

4. " Life and light ! " The words have a familiar and 
a solemn sound. Are they snatches from some forgotten 
sentiment of Holy Writ ? John, perhaps ? John, the golden 
lipped, happy-hearted young enthusiast? What a poet that 
fisherman was ! No wonder that modern dispute centres 

. about the authenticity of the Fourth Gospel. Life and 
Light ! In all the universe those were the only two words 
that could interpret the summer-noon meaning of this vir- 
gin State of Maine. Elizabeth Stuart Phelps. 

Resounds the living surface of the ground : 
Nor undelightful is the ceaseless hum, 
To him who muses through the woods at noon ; 
Or drowsy shepherd, as he lies reclined, 
With half-shut eyes, beneath the floating shade 
Of willows gray, close-crowding o'er the brook. 

Thomson. 



AUGUST. 12 1 

5. There are duties devolving on every human being, 
— duties not small nor few, but vast and varied, — which 
spring from home and private life, and all their sweet rela- 
tions. The support or care of the humblest household is 
a function worthy of men, women, and angels, so far as it 
goes. From these duties none must shrink, neither man 
nor woman ; the loftiest genius cannot ignore them ; the 
sublimest charity must begin with them. They are their 
own exceeding great reward ; their self-sacrifice is infinite 
joy; and the selfishness which discards them is repaid by 
loneliness and a desolate old age. 

T. W. Higginson. 

6. Stay, stay at home, my heart, and rest ; 
Home-keeping hearts are happiest, 

For those that wander they know not where 
Are full of trouble and full of care : 
To stay at home is best. 

Weary and homesick and distressed 
They wander east, and wander west, 
And are baffled and beaten and blown about 
By the winds of the wilderness of doubt ; 
To stay at home is best. 

Then stay at home, my heart, and rest; 
The bird is safest in its nest ; 
O'er all that flutter their wings and fly 
A hawk is hovering in the sky ; — 
To stay at home is best. 

Longfellow. 



122 AUGUST. 

7. " Lord, it is good for us to be here," the disciples 
said. And it was good for them to be there : but not too 
long. Man was sent into this world not merely to see but 
to do ; and the more he sees, the more he is bound to go 
and do accordingly. St. Peter had to come down from the 
mount, and preach the Gospel wearily for many years, and 
die at last upon the cross. St. Augustine, though he 
would gladly have lived and died doing nothing but fixing 
his soul's eye steadily on the glory of God's goodness, 
had to come down from the mount likewise, and work, and 
preach, and teach, and wear himself out in daily drudgery 
for that God whom he learnt to serve. 

Charles Kingsley. 

8. Accomplishments make a woman valuable to herself. 
A truly accomplished woman — one whose thoughts have 
come naturally to flow out in artistic forms, whether 
through the instrumentality of her tongue, her pen, her 
pencil, or her piano, is a treasure to herself and to society. 
There maybe something to interfere with your being all 
this ; but this you can do : you can acquire thoroughly 
every accomplishment for which you have a natural apti- 
tude, or you can let it alone. Do not be content with a 
smattering of anything. Timothy Titcomb. 

" I don't want to be uncharitable, and I don't in the 
least believe the things people often say about society; 
but really, Lisbeth, I have sometimes thought that the life 
behind all the glare and glitter was just the least bit stupid 
and hollow. I know I should get dreadfully tired of it, if 
I had nothing else to satisfy me ; no real home life, and no 
true, single-hearted, close friends to love, like you and 
mamma." Frances Hodgson Burnett. 



AUGUST. 123 

9. Madame Recamier adopted certain rules which good 
society has since observed. She discouraged the tete-a-tete 
in a low voice in a mixed company ; if any one in her cir- 
cle was likely to have especial knowledge, she would ap- 
peal to him with an air of deference ; if anyone was shy, 
she encouraged him ; if a mot was particularly happy, she 
would take it up and show it to the company. Presiding 
in her own salon, she talked but little herself, but rather 
exerted herself to draw others out ; without being learned, 
she exercised great judgment in her decisions when appeals 
were made to her as the presiding genius. She discour- 
aged everything pedantic and pretentious ; she dreaded 
exaggerations ; she kept her company to the subject under 
discussion ; she would allow no slang ; she insisted upon 
good nature and amiability which more than anything else 
marked society in the 18th century. 

John Lord. 

10. O, yes, girls, dress helps, and we are in no mood 
to dispense with it. We do not want you all to look like 
the inmates of an orphan asylum, — green checked sun- 
bonnets, red calico dresses, and blue capes — O, no ! But 
let us not forget that the girl who wears a dress — though 
it may be worth a thousand dollars and be stiff with gold 
brocade — out of keeping with her face and form, its colors 
in no way agreeing, cannot compare favorably with that 
other girl whose dress costs only fifteen dollars but which 
in its simplicity, its fit, its fabric, its adaptability to the 
place and time where and when it is worn, its air of trim- 
ness and tastefulness gives the wearer a kind of classic 
superiority. A. H. R. 



124 AUGUST. 

ii. The supreme advantage which modern society en- 
joys over society five hundred years ago is printed litera- 
ture. There are scores of blessings connected organically 
with civilization that raise the plane of our life ; but over 
all secular boons this one is sovereign, — the printing 
press, which arrests and cheapens, which accumulates and 
scatters, the victories of genius and the stores of intellect- 
ual toil 

Books are our crowning privilege in modern civilization. 
With a taste for books and music, let every person thank 
God, night and morning, that he was not born earlier in 
history. 

T. Starr King. 

Mark, there. We get no good 

By being ungenerous, even to a book, 

And calculating^ profits — so much help 

By so much reading. It is rather when 

We gloriously forget ourselves and plunge 

Soul-forward, headlong, into a book's profound, 

Impassioned for its beauty and salt of truth — 

Tis then we get the right good from a book. 

Mrs. Browning. 

12. My young-lady friends, of from seventeen upwards, 
your time and the use of it is as essential to you as to any 
father or brother of you all. You are accountable for it 
just as much as he is. If you waste it, you waste not only 
your substance, but your very souls — not that which is 
your own, but your Maker's. 

Miss Mulock. 



AUGUST. I2S 

13. Coquettes are the quacks of love. 

Rochefoucauld. 

God created the coquette as soon as he had made the 

f° oL Victor Hugo. 

A coquette is a young lady of more beauty than sense, 
more accomplishments than learning, more charms of per- 
son than graces of mind, more admirers than friends, 
more fools than wise men for attendants. 

Longfellow. 

14. A prayer is less a speaking than a looking up and 
listening to hear what God will say. 

Mrs. A. D. T. Whitney. 
More things are wrought by prayer 
Than this world dreams of. Wherefore, let thy voice 
Rise like a fountain for me night and day. 
For what are men better than sheep or goats 
That nourish a blind life within the brain, 
If, knowing God, they lift not hands of prayer 
Both for themselves and those who call them friend ? 

Tennyson. 
Child of My love, " lean hard," 
And let Me feel the pressure of thy care, 
I know thy burden, child ; I shaped it, 
Poised it in Mine own hand, made no proportion 
In its weight to thine unaided strength ; 
For even as I laid it on, I said, 
" I shall be near, and while she leans on Me, 
This burden shall be Mine, not hers ." 

Paul Pastnor. 



126 AUGUST. 

15. Our appreciation of the beautiful ought to be 
strengthened by our love of the useful and our admiration 
of labor, just as our appreciation of work ought to be in- 
creased by valuing the serenity of rest. We pause in 
wrapt wonder while we gaze from the cliffs on the blue 
expanse of sea and sky, or cast our eyes upon the beauty 
of stately lawns and waving banks of wild flowers, slop- 
ing down to the rocks. We say, And this is life ! I live, 
I walk in beauty, my soul is bathed in the evening light ! 
But the sounds from the neighboring city meet our ears — 
steam whistles, bells and wagons ; men and girls go by 
with quick steps hastening home from the factories. Then 
the thought comes to us that labor, common labor, has a 
beauty too. Though not so serene a beauty as rest gives, 
not so emotional as Nature imparts, the loveliness of work 
is more vigorous, more earnest, more godlike. A girl who 
lives aright knows not only the joy of rest in the beautiful, 
but of work in the beautiful, too. The one makes her 
gentle, the other makes her strong. a H # r. 

16. 'Tis raging noon ; and, vertical, the sun 
Darts on the head direct his forceful rays. 
O'er heaven and earth, far as the ranging eye 
Can sweep, a dazzling deluge reigns ; and all, 
From pole to pole, is undistinguished blaze. 
Echo no more returns the cheerful sound 

Of sharpening scythe : the mower, sinking, heaps 
O'er him the humid hay, with flowers perfumed ; 
And scarce a chirping grasshopper is heard 
Through the dumb mead. 

Thomson. 



AUGUST, 127 

17. Traveller, what lies over the hill ? 

Traveller, tell to me : 
I am only a child — from the window-sill " 
Over I cannot see. George Macdonald. 

This Universe, the grandest and loveliest work of nature, 
and the Intellect which was created to observe and to 
admire it, are our special and eternal possessions, which 
shall last as long as we last ourselves. Cheerful, there- 
fore, and erect, let us hasten with undaunted footsteps 
whithersoever our fortunes lead us. There is no land 
where man cannot dwell, — no land where he cannot uplift 
his eyes unto heaven ; wherever we are, the distance of the 
divine from the human remains the same. 

Seneca. 

18. Nature finishes everything and that makes a large 
part of her charm. Every little flower is perfect and com- 
plete, from root to seed. Every leaf which will open in 
the next springtime will have its little ribs and edges as 
exactly and completely finished as if it were the only leaf 
God intended to make in the whole year. 

Let us learn to do everything as well as we can. That 
turns life into art. The least thing thoroughly well done, 
becomes artistic. It is a fine art to walk perfectly well, 
not in the heavy mechanical way which most of us walk. 
It is a fine art to speak well, to articulate distinctly, to 
pronounce correctly, to use the right word and not the 
wrong one. Anything complete, rounded, full, exact, gives 
pleasure ; anything slovenly, slip-shod, unfinished, is dis- 
couraging. 

James Freeman Clarke. 



128 AUGUST. 

19. " You think because my life is rude, 

I take no note of sweetness : 
I tell you love has naught to do 
With meetness or unmeetness : 

" Itself its best excuse, it asks 

No leave of pride or fashion 
When silken zone or homespun frock 

It stirs with throbs of passion. 

" The plaything of your summer sport, 
The spells you weave around me 

You cannot at your will undo, 
Nor leave me as you found me." Whittier. 

20. But now let me see what you can do, girls, if you 
will. Almost every one of you spends a few hours a week 
in reading, and some of you pour away " oceans of time " 
over fashionable fiction. Why not give just two or three 
little hours to study, — study so pleasant and so arranged 
that you may call it reading, or recreating, or getting ac- 
quainted with " the best of all good company? " After a 
little while you will find these hours precious and neces- 
sary. They will give you rest, and a greater number of 
useful and pleasant subjects to think about ; they will af- 
ford you broader and readier information ; and they will 
deepen within you an interest in the highest and most 
helpful things this life affords. 

As far as you can, in your reading or studying, group 
those subjects together which belong to one another. Your 
knowledge will thus become more thorough and your in- 
terest more absorbing. A. H. R. 



AUGUST. 



[29 



21. A man without religion is to be pitied, but a god- 
less woman is a horror above all things. 

George Eliot. 

Life is valuable only so far as it serves for the religious 
education of the heart. Mme< de S tael. 

Here is the great, last certainty. Be sure of God. With 
simple, loving worship, by continual obedience, by purify- 
ing yourself even as He is pure, creep close to Him, keep 
close to Him. Be sure of God and nothing can overthrow 
or drown you. Phillips Brooks. 

22. There are many little things in the household, at- 
tention to which is indispensable to health and happiness. 
Cleanliness consists in attention to a number of apparent 
trifles — the scrubbing of a floor, the dusting of a chair, 
the cleansing of a tea-cup, but the general result of the 
whole is an atmosphere of moral and physical well-being — 
a condition favorable to the highest growth of human 
character. The kind of air which circulates in a house 
may seem a small matter, for we cannot see the air, and 
few people know anything about it ; yet if we do not pro- 
vide a regular supply of pure air within our houses, we 
shall inevitably suffer for our neglect. A few specks of 
dirt may seem neither here nor there, and a closed door or 
window would appear to make little difference ; but it 
may make the difference of a life destroyed by fever ; 
and therefore the little dirt and the little bad air are really 
very serious matters. Smiles. 



130 AUGUST. 

23. After all, it doesn't so much signify what you may 
do as that you do it well, whatever it may be. For the 
value of skilled labor is estimated on a democratic basis, 
nowadays. President Eliot, of Harvard University, the 
cook in the Parker House restaurant, and Mary L. Booth, 
who edits Harper's Bazar, each receive four thousand dol- 
lars per year. Frances E. Willard. 

24. " Little Ellie in her smile 

Chooseth ... I will have a lover, — 

And the steed shall be red-roan, 
And the lover shall be noble, 
With an eye that takes the breath, 
And the lute he plays upon 
Shall strike ladies into trouble, 
As his sword strikes men to death. 

And the steed it shall be shod 

All in silver, housed in azure, 

And the mane shall swim the wind : 

And the hoofs along the sod 

Shall flash onward and keep measure, 

Till the shepherds look behind. 

But my lover will not prize 

All the glory that he rides in 

When he gazes in my face 

He will say, " O Love, thine eyes 

Build the shrine my soul abides in ; 

And I kneel here for thy grace." 

Mrs. Browning. 



AUGUST. I31 

25. Ourselves become our own best sacrifice. 

Crash aw. 
A vague feeling of kindness toward our fellow-crea- 
tures is no state of mind to rest in. It is not enough 
for us to be able to say that nothing of human interest is 
alien to us, and that we give our acquiescence, or indeed 
our transient assistance, to any scheme of benevolence that 
may come in our way. No : in promoting the welfare of 
others we must toil ; we must devote to it earnest thought, 
constant care, and zealous endeavor. What is more, we 
must do all this with patience ; and be ready, in the same 
cause, to make an habitual sacrifice of our own tastes and 
wishes. Arthur Helps. 

26. " Marryin' a man ain't like settin' alongside of him 
nights and hearin' him talk pretty ; that's the fust prayer 
There's lots an' lots o' meetin' after that ! " 

Rose Terry Cooke. 

Do you remember the infatuation of " Guenn " ? how 
neither the good priest, nor her own people — no, nor her 
reason — could prevail ? And then do you remember the 
end? Pass quickly through the adoration of a mere mor- 
tal, allow some chances for faults in yourselves and those 
you worship, and do not turn your hearts bitterly against 
common sense. Ideals which grow upon us are stronger 
than those recommended by a first glance. A. H. R. 

I remember one day, when Lady Oldtower was suggest- 
ing — half jest, half earnest, " better any marriage than no 
marriage at all ; " Maud's father replied very seriously — 
" Better no marriage, than any marriage that is less than 
the best." Miss Mulock. 



132 AUGUST. 

27. Mother says that neither she nor her daughter 
shall ever offer wine to any young man under her roof. 

Louisa M. Alcott. 

The foaming, sparkling cup which you, with arch smiles 
and graces, are handing to your guest, may be that critical 
one which will consign him to a drunkard's grave, his wife 
to a mad-house, his children to lives of penury, sickness 
and sorrow. 

A single dose of alcoholic tonics, given as a medicine, 
may revive the fatal passion of half-cured drunkards, and 
forfeit their hard-earned chance of recovery. 

Frances E. Willard. 

28. All great men have lived by hope. Not what they 
saw, but what they believed in, made their strength. 

The power which moves the world is hope. An anxious 
doubtful, timid man can accomplish little. Fear unnerves 
as ; hope inspires us. If, then, we wish to cultivate and 
strengthen our hope, it must be by increasing our faith in 
goodness. 

The path of progress for each individual soul lies along 
this highway of hope. James Freeman Clarke. 

So take Joy home, 
And make a place in thy great heart for her, 
And give her time to grow, and cherish her; 
Then will she come, and oft will sing to thee, 
When thou art working in the furrows, ay, 
Or weeding in the sacred hour of dawn. 
It is a comely fashion to be glad — 

Joy is a grace we say to God. 

Jean Ingelow. 



AUGUST. 133 

29. There are thousands of men in our (English) army 
and navy, and in all our industries, who have reason to 
bless the name of Mary Carpenter. Armed with purity of 
purpose, she went into courts and alleys through which a 
policeman could scarcely walk. Nothing daunted, nothing 
disgusted her. 

There is a great deal of heroism in common life 
that is never known. There is, perhaps, more heroism 
among the poor than among the rich. ... A street 
beggar said that he always got more coppers from the poor 
shop girls than from anybody else. Smiles. 

It is nobler far to do the most commonplace duty in the 
household, or behind the counter, with a single eye to duty, 
simply because it. must be done ; nobler far, I say, than to 
go out of your way to attempt a brilliant deed, with a dou- 
ble mind and saying to yourself not only — " This will be 
a brilliant deed," but also — " and it will pay me, or raise 
me, or set me off, into the bargain." Heroism knows no 
" into the bargain." Charles Kingsley. 

30. She had Albani Cupids and Correggio's floating 
angel — heads painted on the walls of her pretty boudoir, 
and no doubt her studies of such artlessness were not 
without effect in producing her dewy infantine smiles. 
There was much that she knew, this wise and foolish 
woman. But nevertheless, some simple and useful facts 
escaped her. She did not know, for instance, that a 
young heart holds the essence of youth in a woman's face 
in defiance of wrinkles and gray hair. She did not know 
that the world's imprint on her own spirit must sooner or 
later work itself out into her face, despite her cherubic 
studies. Blanche Willis Howard. 



134 AUGUST. 

31. Patience is the truest sign of courage. Ask old 
soldiers, who have seen real war, and they will tell you 
that the bravest men, the men who endured best, not in 
mere righting, but in standing still for hours to be mowed 
down by cannon shot ; who were most cheerful and patient 
in shipwreck, and starvation, and defeat — all things ten 
times worse than fighting — ask old soldiers, I say, and 
they will tell you that the men who showed best in such 
miseries were generally the stillest and meekest men in 
the whole regiment, that is true fortitude ; that is Christ's 
image — the meekest of men, and the bravest too. 

Charles Kingsley. 

Already the nestling sparrows 

Are clothed in a mist of gray, 
And under the breast of the swallow 

The warm eggs stir to-day. 

Already the cricket is busy 

With hints of soberer days, 
And the golden-rod lights slowly 

Its torch for the autumn blaze. 

O brief, bright smile of summer ! 

O days divine and dear ! 
The voices of winter's sorrow 

Already we can hear. 

Celia Thaxter. 



SEPTEMBER. 

1. So here hath been dawning 

Another blue day : 
Think wilt thou let it 
Slip useless away. 

Out of Eternity 

This new day is born; 
Into Eternity, 

At night, will return- 
Behold it aforetime 

No eye ever did ; 
So soon it for ever 

From all eyes is hid. 

Here hath been dawning 

Another blue Day : 
Think wilt thou let it 

Slip useless away ? Carlyle. 

2. Improved cooking-stoves and Mrs. Cornelius have 
made the culinary art such a path of roses that it is hardly 
now included in early training, but deferred till after mat- 
rimony. Yet bread-making in well-ventilated kitchens 
and sweeping in open-windowed rooms are calisthenics so 
bracing that one grudges them to the Irish maidens, whose 
round and comely arms betray so much less need of their 
tonic influence than the shrunken muscles exhibited so 
freely by our short-sleeved belles. 

T. W. HlGGINSON. 

135 



136 SEPTEMBER. 

3. You are not, under the pretense of exercise, to unfit 
yourself for the duties of the day, I once knew a club of 
young enthusiasts, men and women, who used to walk be- 
fore breakfast, summer mornings. It is an exquisite time 
of day, and they had what the New England dialect calls 
" beautiful times." But when they came back, after two 
or three hours, and ate a sumptuous breakfast, as they 
used to, they found themselves quite unfit for the duties 
of the day, for making clothes, writing sermons, advising 
clients, or painting pictures. This is what in slang phrase 
is called " running exercise into the ground." Such exer- 
cise is no longer preparation for living. Remember all 
along, that our business is to keep the body up to the high- 
est point, that we may get from it all the work we can. 

Edward Everett Hale. 

4. " The higher life begins for us, my daughter, when we 
renounce our own will to bow before a Divine law. That 
seems hard to you. It is the portal of wisdom, and free- 
dom, and blessedness. And the symbol of it hangs before 
you. That wisdom is the religion of the Cross." 

George Eliot. 

Every heart must learn to beat, 
As every robin learns to trill, — 

And every life be made complete, 
Led upward by a higher will. 

Dora R. Goodale. 

Be quiet, O my soul! 
My Master's hand is on me now; I must obey His will. 
His hand is very strong ; His word He must fulfil. 

J. M. S. 



SEPTEMBER. 137 

5. On the day after Florence Nightingale's arrival in 
the Crimea, six hundred wounded men were brought in, 
and the number increased until there were over three 
thousand under her immediate charge. One of the gen- 
tlest and tenderest of women, she surveyed the scene of 
confusion and anguish with unruffled mind, and issued 
her orders with perfect calmness. During the first week 
she was known to stand twenty consecutive hours, directing 
the labor of men and women. She established a washing 
house, and a kitchen in which hundreds of gallons of beef 
tea were made daily. She understood the art of husband- 
ing labor. Her nerve was wonderful. She was more 
than equal to the trial of severe surgical operations. The 
more awful to every sense any particular case, the more 
surely would her slight form be seen bending over him, 
until death released him. No wonder the soldiers kissed 
her shadow as it passed their beds. James Parton. 

6. What shall I see if I ever go 
Over the mountains high ? 

Now, I can see but the peaks of snow, 
Crowning the cliffs where the pine-trees grow, 

Waiting and longing to rise 

Nearer the beckoning skies. 



Once, I know, I shall journey far 

Over the mountains high. 
Lord, is thy door already ajar ? — 
Dear is the home where thy saved ones are ; — 

But bar it awhile from me, 

And help me to long for Thee. 

Bjornson. 



138 SEPTEMBER. 

7. People are better than we fancy, and have more in 
them than we fancy ; and if they do not show that they 
have, it is three times out of four our own fault. Instead 
of esteeming them better than ourselves, and asking their 
advice, and calling out their experience, we are too often 
in such a hurry to show them that we are better than thev, 
and to thrust our advice upon them, that we give them no 
encouragement to speak, often no time to speak; and so 
they are silent and think the more, and remain shut up in 
themselves, and often pass for stupider people than they 
are. Because we will not begin by doing justice to our 
neighbors, we prevent them doing justice to themselves. 

Charles Kingsley. 

8. Suppose you are studying English Literature. Be 
watchful, first, for the writer's ideas ; be sure you get his 
thoughts, not such as some one else says are his, accord- 
ing to some one's else interpretation; then observe the 
manner in which those ideas are expressed. The merits 
of a literary work lie quite as much in the style as in the 
thoughts which it contains. 

You may be reading George Eliot's " Romola.^ Be sure, 
when the book ends, that you see somewhat the purpose 
for which it was written. Be impressed with its story: 
follow its wonderful descriptions, its analysis of character ; 
remark the knowledge brought to bear in representing 
that great historical character Savonarola, the Florentine 
republic, and the rule of the De Medicis ; be moved by the 
pathos of the story, its dignity and beauty; but remember 
most that she who begins with virtue, grows, though 
through fires of tribulation, into a radiant, clear, crystal 
womanhood. A. H. R. 



SEPTEMBER. 139 

9. Dorothy Wordsworth [the poet's sister] numbered 
eighty-four years without a winter in her heart. 

Mrs. L. H. Sigourney. 
You find yourself refreshed by the presence of cheerful 
people; why not make earnest effort to confer that pleas- 
ure on others ? You will find half the battle is gained 
if you never allow yourself to say anything gloomy. 

Lydia Maria Child. 
There is no beautifier of complexion, or form, or be- 
havior, like the wish to scatter joy and not pain around 
us. Emerson. 

10. "But I can't give up wishing," said Philip, im- 
patiently. " It seems to me we can never give up long- 
ing and wishing while we are thoroughly alive. There are 
certain things we feel to be beautiful and good, and we 
must hunger after them. George Eliot. 

We are ever looking to something better than we have 
or are, and whether we attain it or lose it, there is no rest 
for our feet. It is the man who is fooled or deluded that 
is to be pitied. He who finds life and self sufficient is 
either a monster or a caricature. A. S. Hardy. 

You say, u In childhood you fancy there's such a good 
time for you in the world." I know it. The trees and 
flowers promise it, and the blue sky and the stars. But 
after long years of disappointment (we are twenty-two 
now!), when you are perhaps giving up and thinking it is 
all a cheat, you turn and find it in your own heart ! Right 
there, Di, shut in like honey in a cell. I suppose the 
" peace that passeth all understanding " is the name for 
it, and when it comes to you so softly, then the old glamour 
is over every thing again, just as it was far away in your 
childhood. Sophie May. 



140 SEPTEMBER. 

11. " The Length and the Breadth and the Height of 
it are equal." 

These are the three dimensions of the human life, its 
length, its breadth, its height. The life which has only 
length, only intensity of ambition, is narrow. The life 
that has length and breadth, intense ambition and broad 
humanity, is thin. It is like a great, flat plain, of which 
one wearies, and which sooner or later wearies of itself. 
The life which to its length and breadth adds height, — 
which to its personal ambition and sympathy with man, 
adds the love and obedience of God, completes itself into 
the cube of the eternal city and is the life complete. 

Phillips Brooks. 

12. I think Hans Andersen's story of the cobweb cloth 
woven so fine that it was invisible, — woven for the king's 
garment, — must mean manners, which do really clothe a 
princely nature. Such a one can well go in a blanket, if 
he would. In the gymnasium or on the sea-beach his 
superiority does not leave him. Emerson. 

In effective womanly beauty form is more than face, 
and manner more than either. Anon. 

We cannot always oblige, but we can always speak 
obligingly. Voltaire. 

Fine manners are a stronger bond than a beautiful face ; 
the former bind, the latter only attracts. 

Lamartine. 

Her air had a meaning, her movements a grace ; 
You turned from the fairest to gaze on her face. 

Mrs. Browning. 



SEPTEMBER. 141" 

13. To enjoy life thoroughly we need daily to mingle 
the ideal with the real. You know some girls fancy them- 
selves the most practical people the sun shines on, but on 
their way to school, to work, or to market, they will stop 
to pick a wayside flower, to admire a fleecy cloud, to 
catch a glimpse of a picture in a shop-window; or they 
will linger a moment to cast an admiring look at the 
charming new neighbor who has just passed on. So with 
their practical estimate of what butter and eggs ought to 
cost, with their lists of Latin prepositions which they have 
but lately learned there creep into the mind wonderful 
shapes of beauty and visions of adorable friends. Keep 
on drawing halos about the heads of your friends, keep on 
delighting in clouds and flowers ; that kind of sentiment 
you will need later to make your hearts as full as your 
minds. A. H. R. 

14. Through suffering and sorrow thou hast passed 
To show us what a woman true may be : 
They have not taken sympathy from thee, 

Nor made thee any other than thou wast, 

Save as some tree, which, in a sudden blast, 

Sheddeth those blossoms which are weakly grown, 

Upon the air, but keepeth. every one 

Whose strength gives warrant of good fruit at last : 

So thou hast shed some blooms of gayety, 

But never one of steadfast cheerfulness ; 

Nor hath thy knowledge of adversity 

Robbed thee of any faith in happiness, 

But rather cleared thine inner eyes to see 

How many simple ways there are to bless. 

J. R. Lowell. 



142 SEPTEMBER. 

15. There are two kinds of neatness: one is too evi- 
dent, and makes every thing about it seem trite and cold 
and stiff, and another kind of neatness disappears from 
our sight in a satisfied sense of completeness — like some 
exquisite, simple, finished style of writing — an Addison's 
or a St. Pierre's. Bulwer. 

We hear a great deal about graceful dancing, pretty 
faces, bright talkers, as well as the dearer charms of good 
scholarship, — not to mention the virtues of base ball and 
tennis grounds — but seldom, I fear, can the most eager 
ears catch the old-fashioned compliment " Such charming 
manners ! " 

" The manners of children at home," said Mrs. Sharpe, 
" form the very foundation stone of society. We all 
know that politeness is defined to be ' kindness of heart ' ; 
and the desire to do always and to every one the best 
thing in one's power, make first a good son or daughter, 
afterwards a good husband or wife, and then a good 
citizen." Mothers in Council. 

16. We cannot easily overrate the influence of those 
who improve the social circle. They give not only the 
greatest pleasure which is known to cultivated minds, but 
kindle lofty sentiments 

When woman accomplishes such results she fills no 
ordinary sphere, she performs no ordinary mission ; she 
rises in dignity as she declines in physical attractions. 
Like a queen of beauty at the tournament, she bestows 
the rewards which distinguished excellence has won ; she 
breaks up the distinctions of rank ; she destroys preten- 
tions ; she kills self-conceit ; she even gains consideration 
for her husband or brother. John Lord. 



SEPTEMBER. 1 43 

17. However good you may be, you have faults ; how- 
ever dull you may be, you can find out what some of them 
are; and however slight they may be, you had better 
make some — not too painful, but patient — effort to get 
quit of them. So far as you have confidence in me at all, 
trust me for this, that how many soever you may find or 
fancy your faults to be, there are only two that are of real 
consequence, — Idleness and Cruelty. Ruskin. 

18. Listen to the story of a simple shepherd, given in 
his own words : — I forget now who it was that once said 
to me, " Jean Baptiste, you are very poor ? " — True. — " If 
you fell ill, your wife and children would be destitute ? " — 
True. And then I felt anxious and uneasy for the rest of 
the day. 

At Evensong, wiser thoughts came to me, and I said 
to myself : Jean Baptiste, for more than thirty years you 
have lived in the world, you have never possessed any- 
thing, yet still you live on, and have been provided each 
day with nourishment, each night with repose. Of trouble 
God has never sent you more than your share. Of help, 
the means have never failed you. To whom do you owe 
all this ? To God. Jean Baptiste, be no longer ungrate- 
ful, and banish those anxious thoughts ; for what could 
ever induce you to think that the Hand from which you 
have already received so much, would close against you 
when you grow old, and have greater need of help ? I 
finished my prayer, and felt at peace. Gold Dust. 

* Let others miss me ! 
Never miss me, God ! ' 

Mrs. Browning. 



144 SEPTEMBER. 

19. To learn never to waste our time is perhaps one 
of the most difficult virtues to acquire. 

A well-spent day is a source of pleasure. To be con- 
stantly employed, and never asking, " What shall I do ? " 
is the secret of much goodness and happiness. 

Begin then with promptitude, act decisively, persevere, 
if interrupted, be amiable, and return to the work unruffled, 
finish it carefully, — these will be the signs of a virtuous 
soul. Gold Dust. 

If it is not right, do not do it ; if it is not true, do not 
say it. Marcus Aurelius. 

20. Winds may blow and skies may rain, fortune may 
prove unkind, days may be lonely and evenings dull ; but 
for the true lover of reading there is always at hand this 
great company of companions and friends, — the wisest, 
the gentlest, the best, — never too tired or too busy to 
talk with him, ready at all moments to give their thought, 
their teaching, to help, instruct, and entertain. They never 
disappoint, they have no moods or tempers, they are 
always at home, — in all of which respects they differ 
from the rest of our acquaintance. If the man who 
invented sleep is to be blessed, thrice blessed be the man 
who invented printing. Susan Coolidge. 

Books are men of higher stature. Mrs. Browning. 

The days of blue-stockings are over ; it is a notable fact 
that the best housekeepers, the neatest needle-women, the 
most discreet managers of their own and others' affairs, 
are ladies whose names the world cons over in library lists 
and exhibition catalogues. Miss Mulock. 



SEPTEMBER. 145 

21. The vanity of loving fine clothes and new fashions, 
and valuing ourselves by them, is one of the most childish 
pieces of folly that can be. Sir Matthew Hale. 

Those who are incapable of shining but by dress would 
do well to consider that the contrast between them and 
their clothes turns out much to their disadvantage. 

Shen STONE. 

As long as there are cold and nakedness in the land 
around you, so long can there be no question at all but that 
splendor of dress is a crime. In due time, when we have 
nothing better to set people to work at, it may be right to 
let them make lace and cut jewels ; but as long as there 
are any who have no blankets for their beds, and no rags 
for their bodies, so long it is blanket-making and tailoring 
we must set people to work at, not lace. Ruskin. 

22 And pray be mindful of the way you look at things. 
Do not try to see evil ; have on your kind eyes, magnify 
every dot of goodness. Ruskin says, " In all things 
throughout the world, the men who look for the crooked 
will see the crooked, and the men who look for the 
straight will see the straight." And George Eliot tells 
us to " Put a good face on it and don't seem to be looking 
out for crows, else you'll set other people to watchin' for 
'em to." Try especially to see what is good in your own lot. 

" Count up your mercies," girls, and see how many they 
are, then count up your chances for receiving more mercies 
and find out how even more numerous they are. If you 
do not get any comfort out of this, why, you haven't 
counted right, you have left hundreds uncounted. Then 
look closer and try it over again. A. H. R. 



146 SEPTEMBER. 

23. I believe in rewards of a certain kind, especially for 
young folks. They help us along ; and although we may 
begin by being good for the sake of the reward, if it is 
rightly used, we shall soon learn to love goodness for 
itself. Louisa M. Alcott. 

It is what we are, not what we have, that makes one 
human being superior to another. 

Louisa M. Alcott. 
People don't grow famous in a hurry, and it takes a 
deal of hard work even to earn your bread and butter. 

Louisa M. Alcott. 
The characteristic of heroism is its persistency. 

Emerson. 

24. The old postmaster of the town to which her letter 
was directed took it up to stamp, and read on the enve- 
lope the direction to " Miss Lulu Pinrow." He brought 
the stamp down with a vicious emphasis, coming very 
near blotting out the nursery name, instead of cancelling 
the postage-stamp. " Lulu ! " he exclaimed. " I should 
like to know if that great strapping girl isn't out of her 
cradle yet ! I suppose Miss Louisa will think that be- 
longs to her, but I saw her christened, and I heard the 
name the minister gave her, and it wasn't * Lulu,' or any 
such baby nonsense." . . . Why a grown-up young 
woman allowed herself to be cheapened in the way so 
many of them do by the use of names which become them 
as well as the frock of a ten-year-old schoolgirl would 
become a graduate of the Corinna Institute, the old post- 
master could not guess. — He was a queer old man. 

Oliver Wendell Holmes. 



SEPTEMBER. 1 47 

25. There are briers besetting every path, 

Which call for patient care : 
There is a cross in every lot, 

And an earnest need for prayer ; 
But a lonely heart that leans on thee 

Is happy anywhere. 

In a service which thy love appoints, 

There are no bonds for me ; 
For my secret heart is taught " the truth " 

That makes thy children " free ; " 
And a life of self-renouncing love 

Is a life of liberty. Anna L. Waring. 

26. It is of little consequence how many positions of 
cities a woman knows, or how many dates of events, or 
how many names of celebrated persons — it is not the 
object of education to turn a woman into a dictionary. 
But it is deeply necessary that she should be taught to 
enter with her whole personality into the history she 
reads, — to picture the passages of it vitally in her own 
bright imagination ; to apprehend, with her fine instincts, 
the pathetic circumstances and the dramatic relations 
which the historian too often only eclipses by his reason- 
ing, and disconnects by his arrangements. It is for her to 
trace the hidden equities of divine reward, and catch sight 
through the darkness, of the fateful threads of woven fire 
that connect error with its retribution. 

But, chiefly of all, she is to be taught to extend the 
limits of her sympathy with respect to that history which 
is being for her determined, .... and to the con- 
temporary calamity which, were it but rightly mourned by 
her, would recur no more hereafter. Ruskin. 



148 SEPTEMBER. 

27. Love thyself last; cherish those hearts that hate 

thee. 
Corruption wins not more than honesty. 
Still in thy right hand carry gentle peace, 
To silence envious tongues ; be just, and fear not. 

Shakespeare. 
But God shapes all our fitness, and gives each man 
his meaning, even as he guides the wavering lines of 
snow descending. Our Eliza was meant for books ; our 
dear Annie for loving and cooking ; I, John Ridd, for 
sheep, and wrestling, and the thought of Lorna ; and 
mother to love all three of us, and to make the best of 
her children. R. D. Blackmore. 

Nothing useless is, or low ; 

Each thing in its place is best ; 
And what seems but idle show 
Strengthens and supports the rest. 

Longfellow. 

28. Let the maiden with erect soul, walk serenely on 
her way, accept the hint of each new experience, search 
in turn all the objects that solicit her eye, that she may 
learn the power and the charm of her new-born being, 
which is the kindling of a new dawn in the recesses of 
space. The fair girl, who repels inteference by a decided 
and proud choice of influences, so careless of pleasing, so 
lofty, inspires every beholder with somewhat of her own 
nobleness. The silent heart encourages her ; O friend, 
never strike sail to a fear! Come into port greatly, or 
sail with God the seas. Not in vain you live, for every 
passing eye is cheered and refined by the vision. 

Emerson. 



SEPTEMBER. 1 49 

29. " I'm glad one girl has had sense enough not to marry 
for a home," said Miss Tryphena energetically, " I've 
watched too many women, toilin' an' slavin,' day an' 
night for men that wouldn't let 'em have even the egg- 
money. There's my own sister Almiry, an' Jacob sets 
consid'able by her too ; always dretful upsot if she's 
sick, and scared for fear she'll die, but he'll take every 
pound of butter an' every solitary egg, an' if she happens 
to touch the money, s'posin' he's laid it down, he sings 
out, ■ Look-a-here, Almiry Skinner, that's money ! ' And 
Almiry drops it like hot shot." Helen Campbell. 

" Of one thing I am pretty sure," he resumed " that 
the same recipe Goethe gave for the enjoyment of life, 
applies equally to all work : * Do the thing that lies 
next to you.' That is all our business. Hurried results 
are worse than none. We must force nothing, but be 
partakers of the divine patience. — How long it took to 
make the cradle! and we fret that the baby Humanity is 
not reading Euclid. If there is one thing evident in the 
world's history, it is that God hasteneth not. All haste 
implies weakness. George Macdonald. 

30. Let us remember that womanliness is in all the 
motherliness we see in our mothers; that it is in all the 
sacrifices and noble deeds of silent women, as well as in 
those of celebrated women ; that it is in the acts of all 
those who make the ordinary home " like the shadow of a 
rock in a weary land." If we are impressed with the 
remembrance that womanliness is in such and such char- 
acters, we shall try harder to imitate them ; we shall be 
more thankful we are women, and more grateful that it 
it belongs to us especially to impart what man lacks, and 
what he must depend on us to supply. A. H. R. 



OCTOBER. 

1. " She's a good girl, Doctor Zay is, if she is cute. 
There isn't a horse in town, without it's mine, can make 
the miles that pony can. Look there ! The creetur wants 
her dinner. She how she holds her? No blinders nor 
check rein on her horses. She drives 'em by lovin' 'em. 
There's woman clear through that girVs brains. You 
should see her in January. There ain't three men in Sher- 
man I'd trust to drive that mare in January without a good 
life insurance before they set out. Now, Mr. Yorke, may 
be you don't feel as I do, but to my mind there's no 
prettier sight under heaven than a brave girl and a fine 
horse that understand each other." 

Elizabeth Stuart Phelps. 
Life is not so short but that there is always time enough 
for courtesy. Self-command is the main elegance. " Keep 
cool and you can command everybody," said St. Just. 

Emerson. 

2. Trust in that good Father in heaven, whose love 
sent you into the world, and gave you the priceless bless- 
ing of life ; whose love sent his Son to show you the pattern 
of life, and to redeem you freely from all your sins ; whose 
love sends his Spirit to give you the power of leading the 
everlasting life, and will raise you up again to that same 
everlasting life after death. Trust him, for he is your 
Father. Whatever else he is, he is that. He has bid you 
call him that, and he will hear you. If you forget that he 
is your Father, you forget him, and worship a false God of 
your own invention. Charles Kingsley. 

150 



OCTOBER. IJI 

3. Since rooms can be made cosey and cheerful with 
very little money, I think it is right to say that it is every 
woman's duty to make her rooms cosey and cheerful. 
There is not one of my readers, I am sure, who does not 
have, in the course of the year, pocket-money enough to do 

a great deal toward making her room beautiful 

How much better to have a fine plaster cast of Apollo or 
Clytie than a gilt locket, for instance ! How much better 
to have a heliotype picture of one of Raphael's or Correg- 
gio's Madonnas than seventy-five cents worth of candy ! 
. . . No ! it is not a question of money ; it is a ques- 
tion of taste ; it is a question of choosing between good 
and beautiful things, and bad and ugly things. 

Helen Hunt. 

4. If you are studying the natural sciences, so follow 
them that you may see more clearly the rocks, the sea, the 
sky, the verdure of the earth, the mountains, and the 
valleys, the rivers and the lakes, — all the creations upon 
the earth, as far as you have studied them, — so that a new 
heaven and a new earth shall be spread before you, and 
you shall learn to appreciate more fully the beneficence of 
God. 

Are mathematics your choice ? Then learn from them 
the value of stability, fixedness ; the worth of accuracy in 
all studies and in all callings ; the power of durability, es- 
pecially as it refers to the durableness of right against 
wrong ; the perfections of forms and symbols ; the truths 
of reasoning ; the necessity of discipline. A. H. R. 

Stay at home in your mind, 

Don't recite other peoples' opinions. Emerson. 



152 OCTOBER. 

5. I saw her upon nearer view, 
A spirit, yet a woman too ! 

Her household motions light and free, 

And steps of virgin-liberty ; 

A countenance in which did meet 

Sweet records, promises as sweet ; 

A creature not too bright or good 

For human nature's daily food, 

For transient sorrows, simple wiles, 

Praise, blame, love, kisses, tears, and smiles. 

And now I see with eye serene 
The very pulse of the machine ; 
A being breathing thoughtful breath, 
A traveller betwixt life and death ; 
The reason firm, the temperate will, 
Endurance, foresight, strength and skill. 
A perfect woman, nobly planned 
To warn, to comfort, and command ; 
And yet a spirit still, and bright 
With something of an angel light. 

Wordsworth. 

6. And to get peace, if you do want it, make for your- 
selves nests of pleasant thoughts. Those are nests on the 
sea, indeed, but safe beyond all others. Do you know 
what fairy palaces you may build of beautiful thought 
proof against all adversity ? Bright fancies, satisfied 
memories, noble histories, faithful sayings, treasure-houses 
of precious and restful thoughts, which care cannot dis- 
turb, nor pain make gloomy, nor poverty take away from 
us ; houses built without hands for our souls to live in. 

Ruskin. 



OCTOBER. 153 

7. As a girl is bound to do what she honestly feels she 
can do best, she should never question how her work may 
seem to another, provided it does not absolutely injure 
another. In many cases, much more good might be done 
by girls and women, if, instead of talking so much about 
the privileges they lack, they should confidently take the 
places they ought to fill. 

I should not ask is this man's work or woman's work : 
but, rather, is it my work ? But, in whatever I attempted 
I should repeatedly say to myself, Am I keeping my 
womanhood strong and real, as God intended it ? am I 
working womanly ? Sister Dora never questioned whether 
she ought to bind up the wounds of her crushed workmen : 
she laid them on the beds of her hospital, and calmly 
healed them. Caroline Herschel did not stop to ask 
whether her telescope were privileged to find new stars, 
but swept it across the heavens, and was the first dis- 
coverer of at least five comets. A. H. R. 

8. The one serviceable, safe, certain, remunerative, at- 
tainable quality in every study and every pursuit is the 
quality of attention. My own invention, or imagination, 
such as it is, I can most truthfully assure you, would never 
have served me as it has but for the habit of common- 
place, humble, patient, daily, toiling, drudging attention. 

Dickens. 
To have one favorite study and live in it with happy 
familiarity, and cultivate every portion of it diligently and 
lovingly, as a small yeoman proprietor cultivates his own 
land, this, as to study at least, is the most enviable intel- 
lectual life. Hamerton. 



154 OCTOBER. 

9. Have we not sometimes seen persons on whom this 
ineffable Dove of Peace seemed always to brood, — some 
persons whom nothing could disturb, no accident, no dis- 
appointment, no disaster ; who never seemed vexed, never 
discomposed, never sore, never out of temper ; who were 
impregnable to all assaults of evil ; who were like the 
rock in the sea, over which the great billows break and 
roar, but which stands unmoved, and emerges at last calm 
and firm as ever ? 

What produces the divine serenity, subject to no moods, 
clouded by no depression, this perpetual Sunday of the 
heart? It was not merely goodnature, not the accident 
of a happy organization. It was deeper than that. It 
was the perfect poise resulting from a Christian experience. 
It was the habit of looking to God in love and to man in 
l° ve - James Freeman Clarke. 

10. The first essential for a cheerful room is — 
Sunshine. Without this, money, labor, taste, are all 
thrown away. A dark room cannot be cheerful ; and it 
is unwholesome as it is gloomy. Flowers will not blos- 
som in it ; neither will people. 

" Glorify the room ! Glorify the room ! " Sidney Smith 
used to say of a morning, when he ordered every blind 
thrown open, every shade drawn up to the top of the win- 
dow. Whoever is fortunate enough to have a southeast 
or southwest corner room, may, if she chooses, live in such 
floods of sunny light that sickness will have hard work to 
get hold of her ; and as for the blues, they will not dare to 
so much as knock at her door. 

Helen Hunt Jackson. 



OCTOBER. 155 

11. Money is a needful and precious thing, and when 
well used a noble thing ; but I never want you to think it is 
the first or only prize to strive for. 

Louisa M. Alcott. 

Mr. Micawber says, and he is right, that if one's income 
is a shilling and his expenditure twelve pence half-penny, 
the result is misery ; that if with the same income, one's 
expenditure is eleven pence half-penny, the result is abso- 
lute happiness. 

This is quite true, and because it is true, faithful and 
intelligent people determine on the regulation of their ex- 
penses, under a very distinct and reliable system, among 
the first foundations which they lay for successful life. 
Edward Everett Hale. 

12. If old tales were true, and the gift-conferring fai- 
ries really come to stand around a baby's bed, each with a 
present in her hand, I think out of all that they could bestow 
I should choose for any child in whom I was interested, 
these two things, — a quick sense of humor and a love 
for books. There is nothing so lasting or so satisfying. 
Riches may take wings, beauty fade, grace vanish into fat, 
a sweet voice become harsh, rheumatism may cripple the 
fingers which played or painted so deftly, — with each and 
all of these delighful things time may play sad tricks j 
but to life's end the power to see the droll side of events 
is an unfailing cheer, and so long as eyes and ears last, 
books furnish a world of interest and escape, whose doors 
stand always open. Susan Coolidge. 

I believe that more young women sink into invalidism, 
or die prematurely, from the want of adequate thorough 
mental training than from any one other physical or 
mental cause. Edna D. Cheney. 



156 OCTOBER. 

13. Its leaves have been asking it from time to time, in 
a whisper, " When shall we redden ? " And now in this 
month of October this month of travelling, when men 
are hastening to the sea-side, or the mountains, or the 
lakes, this modest Maple, still without budging an inch, 
travels in its reputation, — runs up its scarlet flag on that 
hillside, which shows that it has finished its summer's 
work before all other trees, and withdraws from the con- 
test. . . . How beautiful when a whole tree is like 
one great scarlet fruit full of ripe juices, every leaf, from 
lowest limb to topmost spire, all aglow, especially if you 
look toward the sun ! What more remarkable object can 
there be in the landscape ? ... If such a phenome- 
non occurred but once, it would be handed down to pos- 
terity, and get into mythology at last. Thoreau. 

14. You cannot think that the buckling on the knight's 
armor by his lady's hand was a mere caprice of romantic 
fashion. It is the type of an eternal truth — that the 
soul's armor is never well set to the heart unless a wo- 
mar's hand has braced it: and it is only when she braces 
it loosely that the honor of womanhood fails. 

RUSKIN. 

Ah, wasteful woman ! she who may 
On her sweet self set her own price, 
Knowing he cannot choose but pay — 
How has she cheapened Paradise ! 
How given for naught her priceless gift, 
How spoiled the bread and spilled the wine, 
Which, spent with due, respective thrift, 
Had made brutes men, and men divine ! 

Coventry Patmore. 



OCTOBER. 157 

15. But I am to give you reasons why you are to culti- 
vate your speciality-. And I claim, first, that you should 
do this because you have a specialty to cultivate. The 
second reason, is, because you will then work more easily 
and naturally, with the least friction, with the greatest 
pleasure to yourself and the most advantage to those 
around you. " Paddle your own canoe," but paddle it 
right out into the swift, sure current of your strongest, 
noblest inclination. Thirdly, by this means you will get 
into your cranium, in place of aimless reverie, a resolute 
aim. Frances E. Willard. 

16. " Not as I will : " the sound grows sweet 
Each time my lips the words repeat, 

" Not as I will : " the darkness feels 
More safe than light when this thought steals 
Like whispered voice to calm and bless 
All unrest and all loneliness. 

" Not as I will," because the One 
Who loved us first and best has gone 
Before us on the road, and still 
For us must all his love fulfil, 

"Not as we will." 

Helen Hunt Jackson. 

Whatever church helps you or me best to worship Our 
Father in spirit and truth, that is the best church for us or 
for anyone. It makes no difference to God by what name 
or with what form we seek Him if only the heart truly 
seeks. Sometimes we may draw nearer Him through ex- 
quisite music, and sometimes through the fervent, spoken 
prayer, perhaps sometimes through the silence, as in the 
Friends' Meeting. Christina Goodwin. 



158 OCTOBER. 

17. Second on my list of essentials for a cheerful room, 
I put Color. 

Don't be afraid of red. It is the most kindling and in- 
spiring of colors. No room can be perfect without a good 
deal of it. In an autumn leaf, in a curtain, in a chair- 
cover, in a pin-cushion, in a vase, in the binding of a book, 
everywhere you put it, it makes a brilliant point and gives 
pleasure. The blind say that they always think red must 
be like the sound of a trumpet; and I think there is a 
deep truth in their instinct. It is the gladdest and most 
triumphant color everywhere. Next to red comes yellow ; 
this must be used very sparingly. No bouquet of flowers 
is complete without a little touch of yellow; and no room 
is as gay without it. . . . A bouquet or a room which 
has one grain too much of yellow in it is hopelessly ruined. 

Helen Hunt Jackson. 

18. The young people of our time are said to be want- 
ing in reverence. They are often generous and sympa- 
thetic; they are true and honorable. This class of virtues 
they believe in. But they do not believe in those born of 
reverence. 

" I was born in an unlucky time," said a lady. " When 
I was young, I was obliged to respect and obey my parents, 
and now I am obliged to respect and obey my children." 
An irreverent age is wanting in the highest sentiment of 
man. To " look up " is the noblest of all powers. The 
small egotism which loves to look down on others wilts 
the soul. James Freeman Clarke. 

The greatest of faults, I should say, is to be conscious 
of none. Carlyle. 



OCTOBER. 159 

19. We may be so situated that we cannot do any great 
work in the world. By temperament, by education, or by 
reason of ill-health we may be restricted from carrying out 
our ambitious schemes, but there are none so weak, so 
ignorant, or so poor that they cannot do some good in the 
world. The ladder that reaches to heaven is not composed 
of wooden rungs, or of cold, senseless materials, but God 
has made every human being so dependent on his fellow 
creatures that each one is lifted up by some one above 
him, some busy heart that feels another's need and reaches 
out ; and where there is no looking up nor reaching out 
there is no growth nor spiritual attainment. 

Josephine Pollard. 

20. Have you ever rightly considered what the mere 
ability to read means ? That it is the key that admits us 
to the whole world of thought and fancy and imagination, to 
the company of saint and sage, of the wisest and the wittiest 
.at their wisest and wittiest moments ? That it enables us 
to see with the keenest eyes, hear with the finest ears, and 
listen to the sweetest voices of all time ? More than that, 
it annihilates time and space for us ; it revives for us with- 
out a miracle the Age of Wonder, endowing us with the 
shoes of swiftness and the cap of darkness, so that we 
walk invisible like fern seed, and witness unharmed the 
plague at Athens or Florence or London, accompanying 
Caesar on his marches, or look in on Cataline in council 
with his fellow-conspirators, or Guy Fawkes in the cellar 
of St. Stephen's. Lowell. 

To read without reflecting is like eating without digest- 
ing- Burke. 



%6& OCTOBER. 

21. To-day, October 21, I found the air in the bushy 
fields and lanes under the woods loaded with the perfume 
of the witch-hazel — a sweetish, sickening odor. With the 
blooming of this bush, Nature says, " positively the last." 
All trees and shrubs, form their flowerbuds in the fall, and 
keep the secret till spring. How comes the witch-hazel to 
be the one exception and to celebrate its floral nuptials on 
the funeral day of its foliage ? No doubt it will be found 
that the spirit of some love-lorn squaw has passed into 
this bush, and that this is why it blooms in the Indian 
summer rather than in the white man's spring. 

But it makes the floral series of the woods complete. 
Between it and the shad-blow of earliest spring lies the 
mountain of bloom ; the latter at the base on one side, this 
at the base on the other, with the chestnut blossoms at the 
top in mid-summer. j OHN Burroughs. 

22. The other thing that represses the utterances of love 
is the characteristic shyness of the Anglo-Saxon blood. . . 
There is a powerlessness of utterance in our blood that 
we should fight against, and struggle outward towards 
expression. We can educate ourselves to it, if we know 
and feel the necessity ; we can make it a Christian duty, 
not only to love, but to be loving, — not only to be true 
friends, but to show ourselves friendly. We can make 
ourselves say the kind things that rise in our hearts and 
tremble back on our lips, — do the gentle and helpful 
deeds which we long to do and shrink back from ; and, 
little by little, it will grow easier, — the love spoken will 
bring the answer of love, — the kind deed will bring back 
a kind deed in return. Harriet Beecher Stowe. 



OCTOBER. l6l 

23. We are ever looking to something better than we 
have or are, and whether we attain it or lose it, there is no 
rest for our feet. 

He who finds life and self sufficient is either a monster 
or a caricature. Do you not see that I do not argue with 
your tears ? 

Sorrow is the handmaid of God, not of Satan. She 
would lead us, as she did the Psalmist to say, " Who will 
show us any good ? " that, after having said this, we may 
also say with him, " Lord lift thou the light of thy coun- 
tenance upon us ! " 

" Honestly," said he, lifting his hands as if he appealed 
to his own conscience, " priest of God though I am, in 
understanding I am as a child. I cannot explain, — I 
testify. I witness to you this mystery, that out of the 
very hurt which brings me low, the spiritual life is devel- 
oped. A. S. Hardy. 

24. The best and safest color for walls is a delicate 
cream color. When I say best and safest, I mean the 
best background for bright colors and poor pictures, and 
the color which is least in danger of disagreeing with any- 
thing you may want to put upon it. So also with floors ; 
the safest and best tint is a neutral gray. If you cannot 
have a bare wooden floor, either of black walnut, or 
stained to imitate it, then have a plain gray felt carpet. 
Above all things, avoid bright colors in a carpet. In rugs, 
to lay down on a plain gray, or a dark-brown floor, the 
brighter the colors the better. The rugs are only so many 
distinct pictures thrown up into relief here and there by 
the under-tmt of gray or brown. 

Helen Hunt Jackson. 



I 62 OCTOBER. 

25. Make up your minds, girls, early in life that your lot 
will probably be like that of the average girl, — that trouble 
must come, and even a skeleton must hang and gibber 
behind your door ; but that, be the skeleton what it may, 
you will nail the door back on the unsightly thing, clothe 
it in some decent garments, and make it as respectable as 
possible in its niche, since it must stay with you. Events, 
decrees, circumstances, will not change for just you and 
me; but we can change ourselves, and so defeat them. 
Do not heed untoward circumstances. " Seize hold of 
God's hand, and look full in the face of His creation, and 
there is nothing He will not enable you to achieve." 

A. H. R. 

26. Let nothing disturb thee, 
Nothing affright thee ; 
All things are passing; 
God never changeth; 
Patient endurance 
Attainteth to all things ; 
Who God possesseth 

In nothing is wanting ; 
Alone God sumceth. 

Longfellow. 

Art tired ? 
There is a rest remaining. Hast thou sinned 
There is a sacrifice. Lift up thy head. 
The lovely world, and the over-world alike, 
Ring with a song eterne, a happy rede, 
" Thy Father loves thee." 

Jean Ingelow. 



OCTOBER. 163 

27. There are few objects in this world more repulsive 
to me than a selfish woman — a woman who selfishly con- 
sults her own enjoyments, her own ease, her own pleas- 
ure. If you have the slightest desire to be loved ; if you 
would have your presence a welcome one in palace and 
cottage alike ; if you would be admired, respected, revered ; 
if you would have all sweet human sympathies clustering 
around you while you live, you must be a working woman 
— living and working for others, denying yourself for 
others, and building up for yourself a character, strong, 
symmetrical, beautiful. Timothy Titcomb. 

28. Nothing could be lovelier than the last rose-buds, 
or than the delicate edges of the strawberry leaves em- 
broidered with hoar-frosts, while above them Arachne's 
delicate webs hung swaying in the green branches of the 
pines, — little ball-rooms for the fairies, carpeted with 
powdered pearls, and kept in place by a thousand dewy 
strands, hanging from above like the chains of a lamp, 
and supporting them from below like the anchors of a 
vessel. These little airy edifices had all the fantastic 
lightness of the elf-world, and all the vaporous freshness 
of the dawn. From the Journal of Amiel. 

In this art of conversation, woman, if not the queen and 
victor, is the lawgiver. . . . Madame de Tesse said, 
" If I were Queen, I should command Madame de Stael 
to talk to me every day." Conversation fills all gaps, 
supplies all deficiences. What a good trait *is that re- 
corded of Madame de Maintenon, that, during dinner, the 
servant slipped to her side, " Please, Madame, one anec- 
dote more, for there is no roast to-day ! " Emerson. 



164 OCTOBER. 

29. How much we might make of our family life, of our 
friendships, if every secret thought of love blossomed into 
a deed ! We are not now speaking merely of personal 
caresses. These may or may not be the best language 
of affection. Many are endowed with a delicacy, a fas- 
tidiousness of physical organization, which shrinks away 
from too much of these, repelled and overpowered. But 
there are words and looks and little observances, thought- 
fulnesses, watchful little attentions, which speak of love, 
which make it manifest, and there is scarce a family that 
might not be richer in heart-wealth for more of them. 

Harriet Beecher Stowe. 

30. Believe me, your Christianity must be everywhere 
or nowhere, in everything or in nothing. You can keep 
it beside you when you sit at work, or when you put down 
your work to read the last entertaining book, or carry it 
abroad with you when you walk, or ride, or drive. You 
ought to be able to take it with you to your gayest party, 
and not leave it behind you when you dance and think 
" nae ill." It may ring in your merriest laugh, as well as 
wail in your bitterest weeping. ... I tell you once 
more, there is Christianity in threading your mother's 
needle, or pulling off your little sister's boot, as well as in 
taking notes of sermons and distributing tracts, and there 
is more security of the genuineness of the Christianity in 
the first instances, than in the last. Sarah Tytler. 

Not what you say, or wish, or hope, 
While through the darkness here you grope ; 
But what you do and what you are 
In heart, and thought, and character. 

James H. Hoadley. 



OCTOBER. 165 

31. Third on my list of essentials for making rooms 
cosey, cheerful, and beautiful, come Books and Pictures. 
"But books and pictures cost a great deal of money." 
Yes, books and pictures do cost money, but books accu- 
mulate rapidly in most houses where books are read at 
all; and if people really want books, it is astonishing how 
many they contrive to get together in a few years. As 
for pictures, how much or how little they cost depends on 
what sort of pictures you buy. For a few shillings you 
can buy a good heliotype of one of Raphael's or Correg- 
gio's Madonnas, as I have said before. But you can pur- 
chase pictures much cheaper than that. A Japanese fan 
is a picture ; some of them are exquisite pictures, and 
blazing with color too. Helen Hunt Jackson. 



NOVEMBER. 

i. These rocks were never so red and black and soft 
gray before ; the sea besieges us with intensest blue ; 
and the atmosphere is all pure gold. There is a bloom 
spread over the horizon which summer does not give, that 
seems like the meeting of the sunrise and the glow of the 
early twilight ; it lies like a benediction over sea and land. 
The sea sings, and the heavens answer, and other men's 
thoughts are as nothing. 

We all know how the sense of but a short abiding 
enhances the joy of these last days; how we hold the 
hours with a miser's grasp, and how they slip, swift and 
golden, from our unwilling fingers. I think we can speak 
our best thoughts out under that broad and quiet sky, 
and the answering note of sympathy is never so surely 
struck as then. Alice G . Howe. 

2. Do not begin by suffering or welcoming a willing 
horse or a scapegoat among you, girls. Do not allow the 
generosity, sweet temper, or simplicity of one of you to 
take upon her the burdens of all the rest, so that when a 
stranger asks who gets up in the morning and gives out 
the tea and the coffee for breakfast, who stays at home 
from the afternoon excursion and writes dutiful letters, 
who invariably initiates the new servants in their duties, 
and prepares the children's lessons, bears all the respon- 
sibility, and incurs all the scolding — the answer is, with- 
out fail, Margaret, or Mary, or Lily as it may be. 

Sarah Tytler. 
166 



NOVEMBER. l6j 

3. Earth's crammed with heaven, 

And every common bush afire with God ; 
But only he who sees, takes off his shoes. 

Mrs. Browning. 

There has probably lived within the past century, no 
woman whose genius, character, and position are more 
full of interest than Mrs. Browning's. She was not only 
far above all the female poets of her age, but ranked with 
the first poets. She was not only a great poet but a great 
woman. She loved and revered art, but she loved and 
revered humanity more. Born and reared in England, 
her best affections were given to Italy, and her warmest 
friends and most enthusiastic admirers are found in 
America. Edward Y. Hincks. 

Why is the memory of Mrs. Browning loved beyond 
that of almost any poet who has sung ? Because " the 
cry of the human " is so strong in that wondrous voice of 
ners - Frances E. Willard. 

4. I had once the honor to address the girls of the 
1 2th Street School in Xew York. " Shall I call you 
* girls,' or ■ young ladies ' ? " said I. " Call us girls," was 
the unanimous answer. I heard it with great pleasure ; 
for I took it as a nearly certain sign that these three hun- 
dred young people were growing up to be true women, — 
which is to say, ladies of the very highest tone. 

" Why did I think so ? " Because at the age of fifteen, 
sixteen, and seventeen they took pleasure in calling things 
by their right names. Edward Everett Hale. 



1 68 NOVEMBER. 

5. See what wily creatures these blues are! — full of 
conceit ! They grow powerful while looking at us. They 
are like those little wood creatures which can take the 
hue of the tree on which they rest, so that for a long 
time we do not perceive them. They sit beside us by 
hundreds when we fancy we are alone ; and change 
their colors and their wheedling tones to suit our inclina- 
tions, while they pour into our ears deceitful whisperings 
that the world is all wrong, and we are all right, — the 
vile flatterers ! They paint all our surroundings with dark 
colors, make all our pictures Mater Dolorosas or St. 
Sebastians, turn all our music into requiems, and all our 
books into Stygian epics. A. H. R. 

6. I have never known any other woman so systemati- 
cally and persistently industrious as Alice Cary. Hers 
was truly the genius of patience. No obstacle ever daunted 
it, no pain ever stilled it, no weariness ever overcame it, 
till the last weariness of death. I doubt if she ever kept 
a diary, or wrote down a rule for her life. She did not 
need to do so ; her life itself was the rule. There was a 
beautiful, yet touching uniformity in her days. Her pleas- 
ure was her labor. Of rest, recreation, amusement, as 
other women sought these, she knew almost nothing. Her 
rest and recreation were the intervals from pain, in which 
she could labor. It was not always the labor of writing. 
No, sometimes it was making a cap, or trimming a bonnet 
yet it was work of some sort, never play. 

Mary Clemmer. 

The world belongs to the energetic man. 

Emerson, 



NOVEMBER. 1 69 

7. With a very earnest prayer, Polly asked for the 
strength of an upright soul, the beauty of a tender heart, 
the power to make her life a sweet and stirring song, 
helpful while it lasted, remembered when it died. 

Louisa M. Alcott. 

When Harriet Beecher was the leading spirit in a girl's 
society for mental improvement, she did not know that the 
intellectual gifts there developed would enable her to strike 
the keenest blow that slavery ever received in this coun- 
try. Keep the sword bright, keen, and well tempered, and 
opportunity will come to use it in defense of truth and 
right. Edna D. Cheney. 

" I've got no rich friends to help me up, but, sooner or 
later, I mean to find a place among cultivated people; 
and while I am waiting and working I can be fitting my- 
self to fill that place like a gentlewoman as I am." 

Louisa M. Alcott. 

8. Fourth on my list of essentials for a cosey, cheerful 
room, I put — Order. I think almost as many rooms are 
spoiled by being kept in too exact order, as by being 
too disorderly. There is an apparent disorder which is not 
disorderly; and there is an apparent order, which is only 
a witness to the fact that things are never used. I do not 
know how better to state the golden mean on this point 
than to tell the story of an old temple which was once dis- 
covered, bearing on three of its sides this inscription, " Be 
bold." On the fourth side, the inscription, " Be not too 
bold." I think it would be well written on the three sides 
of a room, " Be orderly ; " on the fourth side, " But don't 
be too orderly." Helen Hunt Jackson. 



170 NOVEMBER. 

9. All are architects of Fate, 

Working in these walls of Time ; 
Some with massive deeds and great, 
Some with ornaments of rhyme. 

For the structure that we raise, 

Time is with materials filled ; 
Our to-days and yesterdays 

Are the blocks with which we build. 

In the elder days of Art, 

Builders wrought with greatest care, 

Each minute and unseen part, 
For the Gods see everywhere. 

Let us do our work as well, 

Both the unseen and the seen ; 
Make the house, where Gods may dwell, 

Beautiful, entire, and clean. 

Longfellow. 

10. Shall we not find that all parts of our lives will 
prove to have been training for whatever is our truest 
work even on earth, and also for the heavenly service to 
which one, more and more, looks forward? But the bits 
of wayside work are very sweet. Perhaps the odd bits, 
when all is done, will really come to more than the seem- 
ingly greater pieces ! The chance conversations with rich 
or poor, the seed sown in odd five minutes, even the tables- 
d'hote for me, and the rides and friends' tables for you. 
It is nice to know that the King's servants are always really 
on duty, even while some can only stand and wait. 

Frances R. Havergal. 



NOVEMBER. 171 

11. What makes us blame the weather so much for our 
moods, girls ? The day is gray everywhere, — in the skies, 
on the trees, on the ground, — and gray in us therefore. 
Ah ! but these colors are beautiful, even in November and 
December. In their variety, they are soft and shimmering 
on the tree branches, a slightly ruddy gray on the branchlets, 
and a serener gray on the tree trunks. Overhead, even 
when a storm is gathering in the sky, there are the colors 
of the moonstone tinting into silver, and shading into pearl 
and blue. On the ground are delicate wood-colors, — um- 
bers, siennas, greens toned down to gray. The atmos- 
phere, from its lack of sunlight, only sets off the more 
visibly, beautiful forms of trees and branches. No, the 
day is not moody: we are. We are not in harmony with 
her, but have arrayed ourselves against her. A. H. R. 

12. Titian and Raphael, and all the great brotherhood 
of painters, may kneel reverently as priests before Nature's 
face, and paint pictures at sight of which all men's eyes 
shall fill with grateful tears ; and yet all men shall go away, 
and find that the green shade of a tree, the light on a 
young girl's face, the sleep of a child, the flowering of a 
flower, are to their pictures as living life to beautiful 
death. Helen Hunt Jackson. 

In old days there were angels who came and took men 
by the hand and led them away from the city of destruc- 
tion. We see no white-winged angels now. But yet men 
are led away from threatening destruction ; a hand is put 
into theirs, which leads them forth gently towards a calm 
and bright land, so that they look no more backward, and 
the hand may be a little child's. George Eliot. 



172 NOVEMBER. 

13. Many a young girl who is suddenly thrown upon 
her own resources fails to do what she can, merely because 
she has not the tact to do the first thing that offers that is 
reputable. She cannot teach, perhaps, nor write for the 
press, nor paint, nor read proof, but she ought to know 
how to keep house, and, if she knows that she has one 
opening. There are schools that need matrons and stew- 
ards, and there are many households in which the mistress 
wishes relief from the care of providing and managing 
servants. Many a woman might do far worse than accept 
a position of that sort. Are there not many, too, who have 
had enough experience in watching dressmakers and 
milliners to learn to do their work without much loss of 
time? Mothers in Council. 

14. The chief duty of a nurse is simply to keep the air 
which the patient breathes as pure as the external air, but 
without chilling him. . . . An extraordinary fallacy is 
the dread of night air. What air can we breathe at 
night but night air ? The choice is between pure night 
air from without and foul night air from within. Most 
people prefer the latter. An unaccountable choice ! An 
open window, most nights in the year, can hurt no one. 
Better shut the windows all day than all night. One rea- 
son why people, especially women, are less robust than 
formerly is because they spend the greater part of their 
lives breathing poison. Florence Nightingale. 

If our girls are to walk the same streets with their 
brothers, is there any reason why the soles of their shoes 
should not be of equal thickness ? And yet no man would 
think of wearing soles as thin as those which many of our 
girls habitually wear. Anna C. Brackett. 



NOVEMBER. 1 73 

15. Obedience to the behests of duty gives peace, even 
when love is lacking; and peace is a diviner thing than 
happiness. Mary A. Livermore. 

If you have a piano, one note of which in the treble 
is mute, not one tune can be played on it, — no music 
worth having can be drawn from it, without making the de- 
fect manifest; and yet the note is not actively offensive, it 
merely does not sound. 

Now, call the piano a family, and call the Cumberer a 
faulty note, and you at once see the harm she does ; she 
makes the tune imperfect when it does not sound, and 
when it does sound, jars. 

Jean Ingelow. — The Cumberers. 

The habit of treating one another without the little 
forms in use among other friends, and the horrid trick of 
speaking rudely of each other's defects or mishaps, is the 
underlying source of half the alienations of relatives. If 
we are bound to show special benevolence to those near- 
est to us, why do we give them pain at every turn, rub 
them the wrong way, and froisser their natural amour 
propre by unflattering remarks or unkind references ? 

Frances Power Cobbe. 

16. The only thing wiser than dreaming is doing, — 
working in such a way as to bring the distant near, and 
getting out of the veriest commonplace the joy we fancied 
lay only in the future, in other lands, or only in dreams. 
Build castles and dwellings out of the commonplace, and 
you shall see them shine with splendor, and glow with 
beauties which can never be exhausted. She alone is rich 
who has estates in her soul. A. H. R. 



174 NOVEMBER. 

17. Mary Ashburton was in her twentieth summer. 
Like the fair maiden Amoret, who was sitting in the lap of 
womanhood. They did her wrong who said she was not 
beautiful : and yet 

" She was not fair, 

Nor beautiful ; those words express her not. 
But, O, her looks had something excellent, 
That wants a name/' 

Her face had a wonderful fascination in it. It was such 
a calm, quiet face, with the light of the rising soul shining 
so peacefully through it. At times it wore an expression 
of seriousness, — of sorrow even ; and then seemed to 
make the very air bright with what the Italian poets call the 
lightning of the angelic smile. Longfellow. 

18. As our girls come into womanhood we wish them 
to take right views of life ; and, while we desire that they 
shall enjoy themselves as only young girls can, we certainly 
would not have them look for nothing beyond the enjoyment 
of the moment. " Having a thoroughly good time " must 
not be their first and only idea. They have claims upon 
their time and affection from the family at home ; their 
feelings are easily moved, and should be directed to sym- 
pathy in the real troubles and sorrows that they see, or 
they should be taught to look for them among those whose 
lot is less happy than their own, rather than allowed to 
waste themselves in sentimental sorrows over modern 
novels and the distresses of the imaginary heroines whom 
we hear so much about. Mothers in Council. 



NOVEMBER. 175 

19. We shall see, first, that the cheery person never 
minds small worries, vexations, perplexities. Second, 
that he is brimful of sympathy in other people's gladness ; 
he is heartily, genuinely glad of every bit of good luck or 
joy which comes to other people. Thirdly, he has a keen 
sense of humor, and never lets any droll thing escape him ; 
he thinks it worth while to laugh, and to make everybody 
about him laugh, at every amusing thing. Patience, sym- 
pathy, and humor, these are the three most manifest traits 
in the cheery person. But there is something else, . . . 
this is lovingness. This is the real point of difference be- 
tween the mirth of the witty and sarcastic person, which 
does us no good, and the mirth of the cheery person which 
" doeth good like a medicine." 

Helen Hunt Jackson. 

20. Consider it 
(This cuter world we tread on) as a harp, — 
A gracious instrument on whose fair strings 
We learn those airs we shall be set to play 
When mortal hours are ended. Let the wings, 
Man, of thy spirit move on it as wind, 

And draw forth melody. Why shoulds't thou yet 
Lie grovelling ? More is won than e'er was lost : 
Inherit. Let thy day be to thy night 
A teller of good tidings. Let thy praise 
Go up as birds go up that, when they wake, 
Shake off the dew and soar. Jean Ingelow. 

Hope never hurt anyone — never yet interfered with 
duty; nay, it always strengthens to the performance of 
duty, gives courage and clears the judgment. 

George Macdonald. 



176 NOVEMBER. 

21. Marguerite de Valois wrote, " Gentleness, cheerful- 
ness, and urbanity are the Three Graces of manners." 
Valuing all that constitutes a lady, knowing that these 
graces are necessary to every girl, I believe the ladylike is 
but a part of true womanliness, — that infinitely precious, 
indescribable something in woman that makes her royal by 
birth, queen of herself, and fit to occupy the throne that 
is placed beside the king's throne, — not higher, not lower, 
but beside it ; not his, but like his ; her own, from which, 
with equal though with differing eye, she looks in blessing 
on the world. A. H. R. 

22. She had the essential attributes of a lady, — high 
veracity, delicate honor in her dealings, deference to 
others, and refined personal habits. George Eliot. 

The " Earth waits for her queen," was Margaret Fuller's 
favorite motto. A. H. R. 

" And whether consciously or not, you must be, in many 
a heart, enthroned : there is no putting by that crown ; 
queens you must always be ; queens to your lovers ; 
queens to your husbands and your sons ; queens of higher 
mystery to the world beyond, which bows itself and will 
forever bow, before the myrtle crown, and the stainless 
sceptre, of womanhood. Ruskin. 

For one, I can truly say, with charming Mrs. Trench in 
her letters written in 18 16, " I do believe the girls of the 
present day have not lost the power of blushing ; and 
though I have no grown-up daughters, I enjoy the friend- 
ship of some who might be my daughters, in whom the 
greatest delicacy and modesty are united with perfect ease 
of manner, and habitual intercourse with the world." 

T. W. HlGGINSON. 



NOVEMBER. 177 

23. Nothing can bring you peace but yourself. Nothing 
can bring you peace but the triumph of principles. 

Emerson. 
The only use of time is in bringing the heart into 
partnership with high principles, and thus rising into 
fellowship with God. As the Emperor Titus said, " I 
have lost a day," when he could think of no good action 
he had done during the sun's circuit, we must judge our- 
selves in the blaze of the fact that every day is lost, ac- 
cording to the heavenly notation, that has not been en. 
nobled and spiritualized by the action of some moral and 
celestial quality, either in restraining passion, or doing 
something, or giving something, or cherishing some devout 
sentiment, — so that a truth, a principle, has become a 
more ready guest, through us, in this world of conflict and 
sin - T. Starr King. 

24. If I were to choose among all gifts and qualities 
that which, on the whole, makes life pleasantest, I should 
select the love of children. No circumstance can render 
this world wholly a solitude to one who has that posses- 
sion. It is a freemasonry. Wherever one goes, there 
are the little brethren and sisters of the mystic tie. No 
diversity of race or tongue makes much difference. A 
smile speaks the universal language. "If I value myself 
on anything," said the lovely Hawthorne, " it is on having 
a smile that children love." . . . The dearest saint in 
my calendar never entered a railway car that she did not 
look round for a baby, which, when discovered, must al- 
ways be won at once into her arms. 

T. W. Higginson. 



178 NOVEMBER. 

25. Look up at the miracle of the falling snow, — the 
air a dizzy maze of whirling, eddying flakes, noiselessly 
transforming the world, the exquisite crystals dropping in 
ditch and gutter, and disguising in the same suit of spot- 
less livery all objects upon which they fall. .How novel 
and fine the first drifts ! The old, dilapidated fence is 
suddenly set off with the most fantastic ruffles, scalloped 
and fluted after an unheard-of fashion ! 

The world lies about me in a " trance of snow." The 
clouds are pearly and iridescent — the ghosts of clouds. 
. . . I see the hills, bulging with great drifts, lift them- 
selves up cold and white against the sky. . . . 

Looking down a long line of decrepit stone-wall, in the 
trimming of which the wind had run riot, I saw, as for the 
first time, what a severe yet master artist old Winter is. 
Ah, a severe artist ! j OHN Burroughs. 

26. It is not for you, nor for me, to slight, to scorn, to 
condemn the fallen. Of this we are sure, — that no beauty, 
no intelligence, can compare with womanliness ; and that 
no girl, weak and wicked as she may be, is utterly lost to 
womanliness. May I here appeal to you, dear girls, to 
hasten the return of a woman to her best self? May I 
urge you not to slight even the sinful ? As you are girls 
with most precious endowments, remember to encourage 
the growth of these gifts in other girls. Then will woman- 
hood seem even more blessed than now, — when girls de- 
fend it and purify it. Perhaps one of the hardest things in 
this world to realize is the fact that we are all, not only 
children of one Father, but that, we are brothers and 
sisters, as well. A. H. R. 



NOVEMBER. 1 79 

27. If I were able, I would change the public sentiment 
so radically, that no girl should be considered well edu- 
cated, no matter what her accomplishments, until she had 
learned a trade, a business, a vocation, or a profession. 
Self-support would then be possible to her, and she would 
not float on the current of life, a part of its useless drift- 
wood. Mary A. Livermore. 

" Thee is restless," said Rachel Froke. " And to make 
us so is oftentimes the first thing the Lord does for us. It 
was the first thing He did for the world. Then He said, 
1 Let there be light ! ' In the meantime, thee is right ; just 
darn thy stockings." 

Doing any one thing well — even setting stitches and 

plaiting frills — puts a key into one's hand to the opening 

of some other quite different secret ; and we can never 

know what may be to come out of the meanest drudgery. 

Mrs. A. D. T. Whitney. 

28. A library of novels is like a gallery of pictures. 
One man saunters through the library and sees what the 
pictures are about ; — another man goes through the gal- 
lery and sees what the artists were about, — what is the 
range of the powers of each, the degrees of their technical 
skill, and the directions in which they lie open to the In- 
finite. The first man sees the paint, all of it ; the second 
man sees the paintings. ... If all novel readers were 
compelled, when they close a book to write out the main 
doctrine or proposition which is the axis of the incidents 
and plot, it would be better for their moral education than 
if they could listen once a week to the best lecture on 
ethics that is delivered by the foremost professor in civiliz- 
ation. T. Starr King. 



l8o NOVEMBER. 

29. Better trust all and be deceived, 

And weep that trust and that deceiving, 
Than doubt one heart that, if believed, 
Had blessed one's life with true believing. 

O, m this mocking world too fast 

The doubting fiend o'ertakes our youth ; 

Better be cheated to the last 

Than lose the blessed hope of truth. 

Frances Anne Kemble. 

30. If I were a boy again [it applies to girls as well], 
I would look on the cheerful side of everything, for every- 
thing, almost, has a cheerful side. Life is very much like 
a mirror ; if you smile upon it, it smiles back again on you ; 
but if you frown and look doubtful upon it, you will be 
sure to get a similar look in return. I once heard it said 
of a grumbling, unthankful person, " He would have made 
an uncommonly fine sour apple, if he had happened to be 
born in that station of life ! " Inner sunshine warms not only 
the heart of the owner, but all who come in contact with it. 
Indifference begets indifference. " Who shuts love out, in 
turn shall be shut out from love." 

James T. Fields. 



DECEMBER. 

i. I see no objection, however, to light reading, desul- 
tory reading, the reading of newspapers, or the reading of 
fiction, if you take enough ballast with it, so that these 
light kites, as the sailors call them, may not carry your 
ship over in some sudden gale. The principle of sound 
habits of reading, if reduced to a precise rule, comes out 
thus : That for each hour of light reading, of what we read 
for amusement, we ought to take another hour of reading 
for instruction. Nor have I any objection to stating the 
same rule backward ; for that is a poor rule which will not 
work both ways. It is, I think, true, that for every hour 
we give to grave reading, it is well to give a corresponding 
hour to what is light and amusing. 

Edward Everett Hale. 

2. Perhaps the first element of " Sister Dora's " charac- 
ter which made itself felt was her great hopefulness. This 
glowed in her, as was said of a great historic character, 
" like a pillar of fire ; " it did so in the first and darkest 
hour, and it did so every hour until the end. This light 
and warmth never paled. It was so healthy, too ; not as 
of hope against hope, but the hope of a sound, pure nature 
doing the work of God. . . . Should we be tempted 
some day to despond of humanity, we will think of her ; 
should we be shaken some dark hour concerning the possi- 
bilities of Christianity, her image will reassure us ; should 
we be told, amid scenes of perplexity, that " religion is a 
disease," then we can point to her, as to one who pos- 
sessed, at all times, a fullness of joyous life beyond all we 
had ever known. Anon. 

181 



l82 DECEMBER. 

3. With Miss St. John, music was the highest form of 
human expression, as must often be the case with those 
whose feeling is much in advance of their thought, and to 
whom, therefore, what may be called mental sensation is 
the highest known condition. . . . One who can only 
play the music of others, however exquisitely, is not a 
musician, any more than one who can read verse to the 
satisfaction, or even expound it to the enlightenment of the 
poet himself, is therefore a poet. When Miss St. John 
would worship God, it was in music that she found the 
chariot of fire in which to ascend heavenward. 

George Macdonald. 

4. I look to Thee in every need, 

And never look in vain ; 
I feel Thy touch, Eternal Love, 

And all is well again : 
The thought of Thee is mightier far 
Than sin and pain and sorrow are. 

Discouraged in the work of life 

Disheartened by its load, 
Shamed by its failures or its fears, 

I sink beside the road ; — 
But let me only think of Thee, 
And then new heart springs up in me. 

Embosomed deep in Thy dear love, 

Held in Thy law, I stand ; 
Thy hand in all things I behold, 

And all things in Thy hand ;) 
Thou leadest me by unsought ways, 
And turnest my mourning into praise. 

Samuel Longfellow. 



DECEMBER. 183 

5. There are so many things a girl can do, even when 
society claims her, — more than ever, I should say t Make 
work, if you cannot get it, girls. Encourage poor girls by 
joining the industrial unions instituted in their behalf. 
Go into the hospitals, old ladies' homes, charity bureaus, 
flower missions. Join a Chautauqua club, or one of the 
societies for the encouragement of studies at home. At- 
tend the numerous lectures, exhibits, etc., which are pro- 
vided free of expense in all large cities. A. H. R. 

6. If the October days were a cordial like the sub-acids 
of fruit, these are a tonic like the wine of iron. Drink 
deep or be careful how you taste this December vintage. 
The first sip may chill, but a full draught warms and in- 
vigorates. No loitering by the brooks or in the woods 
now, but spirited, rugged walking along the public high- 
way. The sunbeams are welcome now. They seem like 
pure electricity — like friendly and recuperating light- 
ning. Are we led to think electricity abounds only in 
summer, when we see in the storm-clouds as it were, the 
veins and ore-beds of it? I imagine it is equally abundant 
in winter, and more equable and better tempered. Who 
ever breasted a snow storm without being excited and 
exhilarated ? It is like being pelted with sparks from a 
battery. Behold the frost-work on the pane — the wild 
fantastic limnings and etchings, can there be any doubt 
but this subtle agent has been here? Where is it not? 
It is the life of the crystal, the architect of the flake, the 
fire of the frost, the soul of the sunbeam. The crisp win- 
ter air is full of it. 

John Burroughs. 



184 DECEMBER. 

7. ... As I looked, a film of shade kept appearing 
and disappearing with rhythmic regularity in a corner of 
the window, as if some one might be sitting in a low rock- 
ing-chair close by. Presently the motion ceased, and sud- 
denly across the curtain came the shadow of a woman. 
She raised in her arms the shadow of a baby, and kissed 

it ; then both disappeared, and I walked on 

The ecstasy of human love passed in brief, intangible 
panorama before me. It was something seen, yet unseen . 
airy, yet solid ; a type, yet a reality ; fugitive, yet destined 

to last in my memory while I live Their 

character, their history, their fate, are all unknown. But 
these two will always stand for me as disembodied types 
of humanity, — the Mother and the Child. 

T. W. HlGGINSON. 

8. The following evening Rosamond heard " Lohen- 
grin " for the first time, and saw the mystic knight of the 
swan. . . " Why," thought Aunt Serena, " can we not 
have the help of beautiful music and the influence of mas- 
ter-minds brought within the reach of moderate means, 
and at so early an hour that neither the aged and the 
delicate, nor the very young, need hesitate to enjoy them ?" 
She preferred, indeed, that Rosamond should study life, 
presented to her gaze in this way, at the sensible hour of 
seven or even half-past six, than that she should make too 
many personal investigations and experiments in a crowded 
ball-room. So the congenial party enjoyed most charm- 
ing' evenings in the pleasant little theatre, where people 
came early in walking-dress, and went home temperately 
at half-past nine. Blanche Willis Howard. 



DECEMBER. 185 

9. Have, first of all, a home ! Xo matter what your 
career, let it start from the home and return to the home. 

Rose Cleveland. 
Womanish and womanly are two quite different things. 

Gladstone. 
I'd rather be a woman than act a queen, 

Louisa M. Alcott. 
With all her human imperfections, the upright nature 
of the child kept her desires climbing towards the just and 
pure and true, as flowers struggle to the light ; and the 
woman's soul was budding beautifully under the green 
leaves behind the little thorns. Lousia M. Alcott. 

All women should desire to give each other the example 
of a sweet, good life, more eloquent and powerful than 
any words. Louisa M. Alcott. 

10. I think that you will all agree with me that the one 
great help of helps is the habit of looking up for strength 
to One who is mightier than we — who is unmoved among 
all the changes and upturnings of time, and who has prom- 
ised to all who feel the need of something firm to set their 
feet upon, ' Ask, and ye shall receive.' If only every day 
in our often too hurried and worried lives we would take 
but fifteen minutes for retirement, for quiet self-recollec- 
tion and prayer, strength and calmness would surely come 
to us. Things around us would assume their due propor- 
tions ; the trifles and worries that seem at the moment su- 
preme would grow less important in our eyes, as our life 
gained in perspective, and we came to see more clearly 
the outlines of that vast and unknown future which lies 
yet before each one of us. Mothers in Council, 



1 86 DECEMBER. 

ii. Happiness is not what we are to look for. Our 
place is to be true to the best we know, to seek that, and 
do that. . . . Let us do right, and then whether hap- 
piness come or unhappiness, it is no very weighty matter. 
If it come, life will be sweet ; if it do not come, life will be 
bitter not sweet, and yet to be borne. . . . The well- 
being of our souls depends only on what we are ; and 
nobleness of character is nothing else but steady love of 
good, and steady scorn of evil. Only to those who have 
the heart to say" We can do without selfish enjoyment; 
it is not what we ask or desire," it is no secret. . . . 
Happiness may fly away, pleasures pall or cease to be ob- 
tainable, wealth decay, friends fail or prove unkind; but 
the power to serve God never fails, and the love of Him 
is never rejected. Froude. 

12. Though winter is represented in the almanac as an 
old man, facing the wind and sleet, and drawing his cloak 
about him, we rather think of him as a merry wood-chop- 
per, and warm-blooded youth, as blithe as summer. The 
unexplored grandeur of the storm keeps up the spirits of 
the traveller. It does not trifle with us, but has a sweet 
earnestness. In winter we lead a more inward life. Our 
hearts are warm and cheery, like cottages under drifts, 
whose windows and doors are half concealed, but from 
whose chimneys the smoke cheerfully ascends. The im- 
prisoning drifts increase the sense of comfort which the 
house affords, and in the coldest days we are content to 
sit over the hearth, . . . enjoying the quiet and serene 
life that may be had in a warm corner by the chimney side. 

Thoreau. 



DECEMBER. 1 87 

13. There always comes some smooth running to every 
skein before all is done. You mustn't try to see through 
the whole skein or to straighten it all out into a single 
thread before you begin to wind; that always makes a 
snarl. There is always an end, and it is what you have 
got to take hold of. Mrs. A. D. T. Whitney. 

Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul, 

As the swift seasons roll ! 

Leave thy low-vaulted past ! 
Let each new temple, nobler than the last, 
Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast, 

Till thou at length art free, 
Leaving thine outgrown shell by life's unresting sea. 

Holmes. 

14. We need society, and we need solitude also, as we 
need summer and winter, day and night, exercise and rest. 
I thank heaven for a thousand pleasant and profitable con- 
versations with acquaintances and friends ; I thank heaven 
also, and not less gratefully for thousands of sweet hours 
that have passed in solitary thought or labor, under the 
silent stars. I value society for the abundance of ideas 
that it brings before us, like carriages in a frequented 
street ; but I value solitude for sincerity and peace, and 
for the better understanding of the thoughts that are truly 
ours. Only in solitude do we learn our inmost nature and 
its needs. Philip Gilbert Hamertox. 

Beside the real life expands the ideal life to those that 
seek it. Droop not, seek it ; the ideal life has its sorrows, 
but it never admits despair. Bulwer. 

Blessed are the missionaries of cheerfulness. 

Lydia Maria Child. 



1 88 DECEMBER. 

15. The path of a good woman is indeed strewn with 
flowers ; but they rise behind her steps, not before them. 
" Her feet have touched the meadows, and left the daisies 
rosy." It is little to say of a woman, that she only does 
not destroy where she passes. She should revive ; the 
harebells should bloom, not stoop, as she passes. 

Far among the woodlands and the rocks, — far in the 
darkness of the terrible streets, — feeble florets are lying, 
with all their fresh leaves torn, and their stems broken — 
will you never go down to them, nor set them in order, nor 
fence them in their shuddering from the fierce wind ? 

Ruskin. 

16. I did but dream. I never knew 

What charms our sternest season wore. 
Was never yet the sky so blue, 

Was never earth so white before. 
Till now I never saw the glow 
Of sunset on yon hills of snow, 
And never learned the bough's designs 
Of beauty in its leafless lines. 

As thou hast made thy world without, 
Make thou more fair my world within ; 

Shine through its lingering clouds of doubts ; 
Rebuke its haunting shapes of sin ; 

Fill, brief or long, my granted span 

Of life with love to thee and man ; 

Strike when thou wilt the hour of rest, 

But let my last days be my best I 

Whittier. 



DECEMBER. 1 89 

17. Never attempt to enjoy every picture in a great 
collection, unless you have a year to bestow upon it. You 
may as well attempt to enjoy every dish in a lord mayor's 
feast. Both mind and palate get confounded by a great 
variety and rapid succession, even of delicacies. The mind 
can take in only a certain number of images and impres- 
sions distinctly : by multiplying the number you render the 
whole confused and vague. Study the choice pieces, look 
upon none else, and you will afterwards find them hanging 
up in your memory. 

Washington Irving. 

18. She would have given neither of the men another 
thought, but that there was no one else with whom to do 
any of that huckster business called flirting which to her 
had just harm enough in it to make it interesting. . . 

I tread on delicate ground — ground which alas ! many 
girls tread boldly, scattering much feather-bloom from the 
wings of poor Physche, gathering for her hoards of un- 
lovely memories, and sowing the seed of many a wish that 
she had done differently. They cannot pass over such 
ground and escape having their nature more or less vul- 
garized. I do not speak of anything counted wicked, but 
of gambling with the precious and lovely things of the 
deepest human relation. If a girl with such an experience, 
marry a man she loves, will she not now and then remem- 
ber something it would be joy to discover she had 
but dreamed ? . . . . Honesty and truth, God's es- 
sentials, are perhaps more lacking in ordinary intercourse 
between young men and women than anywhere else. 

George Macdonald. 



190 DECEMBER. 

19. You can do all. Now make the earth renew its 
vigor ; now make health and courage come again into the 
world ; now restore the reign of cheer ; now break the 
bonds of vice ; now bring back an earthly Paradise ! With 
your strong bodies, your glad hearts, your vigorous minds, 
your imperial sway over the hearts of one another, your 
persuasive control of your elders, it is for you to make the 
future what you will. Oh, make it the dawn of that civili- 
zation, of that Christianity, when again " the morning 
stars shall sing together." A. H. R. 

20. So Guenn had had no need of finery. Now she 
began to thirst after it. Monsieur was always talking of 
color. Monsieur was always talking of form. It seemed 
to her evident that she could more worthily help along the 
great work, if she had a new gown with some color and 
some form, and some bright ribbons beside. One day 
Hamor found her earnestly scrutinizing herself in a small 
mirror which hung in the corner of the atelier. He smiled 
and thought, " All women are alike," — a favorite conclu- 
sion of youngish men who pride themselves upon their 
knowledge of human nature ; but his theories were put to 
rout and confusion when she unabashed smiled sweetly 
at him, and, continuing her investigations, remarked : " I 
am trying to find out what pleases you in my face, mon- 
sieur, I wish I knew. You see — " with her merriest laugh 
— " to me it looks so very much like Guenn Rodellec ! " 
staring solemnly into her own great blue eyes, and adjust- 
ing her coiffe without a sign of coquetry or embarrassment. 

Blanche Willis Howard. 



DECEMBER. 191 

21. Whatever path a young man (or woman) chooses 
in the intellectual world, whatever severity of study he may 
impose upon himself in the ambition to master it, two vol- 
umes must always be pouring their influence into his 
nature, the New Testament and the volume of records of 
his native land. Religion and patriotism must stream into 
every fibre of his brain, into every duct of his blood. 

T. Starr King. 

Human happiness hath no perfect security but freedom ; 
freedom none but virtue ; virtue none but knowledge ; and 
neither freedom nor virtue nor knowledge has any vigor 
or immortal hope except in the principles of the Christian 
faith, and the sanctions of the Christian religion. 

Josiah Quincy. 

22. Those visions of old prophecy are working their 
accomplishment in every home. He who sits upon the 
white horse goes forth conquering and to conquer. Xot 
in the fashion which John of Patmos thought of, very likely. 
But in God's fashion, a thousand times more grand, for 
victories a thousand times more sure. He overthrows 
death, He conquers ignorance and sin, crime is more hated, 
truth is more honored. Light overpowers darkness, good 
conquers evil. And if this is true here, it is onlv because 
it is true everywhere. Those Pilgrim Fathers were not 
little men, nor mean, nor bad. They did the largest thing 
done in their time, and it showed faith most vividly. But 
everywhere, as time passes, the eternal law is that the 
power which works for Righteousness succeeds, — which 
is to say that God reigns, or that His Kingdom comes. 

Edward Everett Hale. 



192 DECEMBER. 

23. " I like that word ' kindness,' " said Mrs. Wythe, " for 
I never hear it without remembering its derivation. To be 
kind is only another form of being human — being like our 
kind, or acting as though we ever felt the tie that binds us 
to our kind. How much of our ill-manners arises from 
forgetfulness that others are children of the same All 
Father! Mothers in Council. 

Manners may be learned at dancing-schools and in 
society, but true politeness grows in the home circle only. 
If missed there, it is seldom found elsewhere. 

Mothers in Council. 

24. Just to let thy Father do what he will ; 
Just to know that he is true, and be still ; 
Just to follow hour by hour as he leadeth; 
Just to draw the moment's power as it needeth ; 

Just to trust him, this is all ! 

Then the day will surely be 
Peaceful, whatsoe'er befall, 

Bright and blessed, calm and free. 

Just to leave in his dear hand little things, 
All we cannot understand, all that stings ; 
Just to let him take the care sorely pressing, 
Finding all we let him bear changed to blessing, 
This is all ! and yet the way 

Marked by Him who loves the best : 
Secret of a happy day, 
Secret of his promised rest. 

Frances R. Havergal. 



DECEMBER. 1 93 

25. It is good to be children sometimes, and never bet- 
ter than at Christmas, when its mighty Founder was a 
child Himself. Dickens. 

" Why do they not give such presents every day ? " said 
Clara. 

" O child," I said, " it is only for thirty-six hours of the 
three hundred and sixty-five days, that all people remem- 
ber that they are all brothers and sisters, and those are the 
hours that we call, therefore, Christmas Eve and Christ- 
mas Day." 

" And when they always remember it," said Bertha, " it 
will be Christmas all the time !" 

Edward Everett Hale. 

26. We mustn't be in a hurry to fix and choose our own 
lot ; we must wait to be guided. We are led on, like the 
little children, by a way that we know not. It is a vain 
thought to flee from the work that God appoints us, for 
the sake of finding a greater blessing to our own souls ; as 
if we could choose for ourselves where we shall find the 
fulness of the Divine Presence, instead of seeking it where 
alone it is to be found, in loving obedience. 

George Eliot. 
The greatest lesson that we have to learn in our mental 
life, is to value quality of work more and quantity less. 
Everybody knows how much more exhilaration and less 
fatigue is experienced from a brisk walk, than from stand- 
ing listlessly around for double the length of time ; and it 
is just so with mental effort. We want neither feverish, 
excited, nor lazy work ; but earnest, vigorous effort, ceas- 
ing when the brain is weary or the object is accomplished. 

Edna D. Cheney. 



194 DECEMBER. 

27. All persons who have spent any considerable time 
in the fair city of Berlin, have heard much of Queen 
Louisa, and those among them who have thought on what 
they have heard, must have pondered on the causes which 
have given such enduring power and sweetness to the 
memory of one so long departed from her home on earth. 
Why is that name so cherished with a living, animating, 
energizing love ? 

I believe that the warm affection which has so long 
survived its object, is due not so much to the Queen's tal- 
ents, to her brave spirit and high aspirations, as to the fact, 
that with these gifts and these exalted aims, she still pre- 
served a tender, sympathizing heart — was the mother of 
the family, and the mother of the land. 

Elizabeth H. Hudson. 
28. If I had known in the morning 
How wearily all the day 
The words unkind 
Would trouble my mind, 
I said when I went away, 
I had been more careful, darling, 
Nor given you needless pain ; 
But we vex " our own " 
With look and tone 
We may never take back again. 

Australian Starr. 

Brothers are indeed terrible critics of their sisters, and 
so far, irritating creatures. But otherwise, as we all know, 
they are the very joy and pride of our lives. 

Frances Power Cobbe. 



DECEMBER. 195 

29. Two things should be included in the education of 
every girl : she should be taught practically the value 
and use of money, and she should be trained to do some 
sort of work by which she can earn a livelihood, if need 
be. . . . Any girl, with a proper personal pride and 
individuality will learn to like the independence which a 
system of allowance gives. To have to ask for every 
article of dress or luxury is somewhat galling to young 
people, and when it is in a home where strict economy 
must be practical, it is sometimes a source of great pain. 

A girl should learn some one thing thoroughly, by 
which she may support herself, if necessary. When a 
woman knows she is competent to earn a living, it will not 
hurt her if she does not need to use her ability. If mis- 
fortune threatens, the knowledge that she is not helpless 
saves many an hour of heart-sickening despondency, and, 
if misfortune does come, she is equipped to meet it. 

S. B. H. — Century. 

30. " Work while you have light," especially while you 
have the light of morning. The happiness of your life, 
and its power, and its part and rank in earth or in heaven, 
depend on the way you pass your days now. They are not 
to be sad days ; far from that, the first duty of young peo- 
ple is to be delighted and delightful ; but they are to be 
in the deepest sense solemn days. Now, therefore, see 
that no day passes in which you do not make yourself a 
somewhat better creature. Ruskin. 

Health is a means to an end. It is an investment for 
the future. That end is worthy work and noble living. 

Mary A. Livermore. 



196 DECEMBER. 

31. My fairest child, I have no song to give you ; 
No lark could pipe to skies so dull and gray ; 
Yet, ere we part, one lesson I can leave with you 
For every day. 

Be good, sweet maid, and let who will be clever ; 
Do noble things, not dream them, all day long : 
And so make life, death, and that vast forever 
One grand, sweet song. 

Charles Kingsley. 

I shall always be very glad to be asked on your birth- 
day, and to come if you will let me, and to send my love 
to you, and to wish that you may live to be very old and 
very happy, which I do now with all my heart. 

Dickens. 
There, — my blessing with you ! 
And these few precepts in thy memory. 
See thou character : — Shakespeare. 



